For Those I Love
by ArchAngelMikey
Summary: A prequel to "A King and His Son" which can also be a standalone story, that explores the background of Jacob Roberts, beginning ten years before the Holy Grail War. This story will delve into the motivations of the main character and his relationship before he met Saber.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: This is a fan made work of fiction based upon the Katawa Shoujo visual novel by Four Leaf Studios. It is not made for profit, only for entertainment. All persons, locations, characters, etc. are fictitious, and any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are coincidental and unintentional. All works of art (music, movies, games, etc.) That may be referenced or mentioned in this story are not my (the author's) property, all rights to those works belong to their respective owners.**

**This story will contain adult themes including vulgar language, sexual themes and content, and gore and violence. Reader discretion is advised.**

I stand in front of a class full of high school students, feeling a little nervous and self-conscious. I can feel the students looking at me, mainly my left eye. I know that not too many of these kids are judging me too much, since all of them have similar issues. I'm at a school called Yamaku, which is a specialized high school in Japan for kids who have physical disabilities.

"Class, this is Mr. Jacob Roberts, he will be a student teacher for this class for the remainder of the semester. Mr. Roberts, would you like to introduce yourself?" The class' science teacher, Mr. Mutou, says.

"No." I say with a deadpan expression. After a couple seconds of a confused expression on the teacher's face, I smile and say, "Just kidding." I speak in Japanese, I learned the language a couple years ago. "Ohayo, everyone. As Mr. Mutou said, my name is Jacob Roberts, I'm gonna be helping him out as a student teacher for the rest of the semester. As I'm sure all of you have noticed, I am in fact, American. I'm doing this as part of my four year degree in education. A little bit about me, abd why I'm here. When I graduated high school I went to college for a couple years, and while I was doing that I was a firefighter. A couple months after I got my two year degree I suffered a… 'workplace accident' and changed careers, going into the army as a medic. Once I got through training I was assigned to an infantry unit and was deployed in Syria.

"After about six months there I was injured and taken out of deployment and stationed here in Japan, and I've been here for about four months. So, with that being said, I know that y'all will need time to trust me, and I'm sure you're sick of hearing stuff like this, but I just want to say that you can think of me as another nurse, or counselor, or friend. If you need anything, I will do anything I can to help you out. Except buy food."

I look around the room as I talk, most of the students look bored and uninterested at first, but as I mention that I'm a firefighter and soldier, a few people take notice. I see a girl with pink dyed hair, her eyes locked on me, moving her hands in weird ways as I talk, it takes me a second to realize she's doing sign language for the girl next her, with glasses and bluish hair, who keeps shifting her gaze from me to her friend's hands. There's several kids with prosthetic limbs, a few normal looking students, and some with scars, like a girl in the back with long purple-black hair, covering one side of her face, the burn scars and skin graft remnants obvious on her face as well as the hand that she uses to try and hide it, she looks away as I glance at her. Once my introduction is done, I write my contact information on the board for anyone who cares, and after that there's not much else for me to do but take a seat by the teacher's desk and observe as he does what he gets paid to do.

…

After the first old-school bell tolls, signifying the start of lunch time, I make my way to the cafeteria along with most of the students who didn't bring their own premade lunch. I grab some food, and I decide to just go back to the classroom, not wanting to intrude on anyone's group, and also being slightly self-conscious and socially anxious. I return to the room and eat with Mr. Mutou, chatting with him about our lives, as well as the current and upcoming lesson plan. After I finish my meal, there's still about ten minutes left for the lunch hour, so I decide to occupy myself with some light exercise, since there's nothing else to do while I talk with the science teacher.

I walk over to the door and place my hands on top of the frame, lowering my legs so that my arms are extended, I begin doing pull-ups. "Uh, Mr. Roberts, what are you doing?" Mr. Mutou asks.

"What does, it look like? Exercise. I may be taking extended leave for this, but I'm still, a soldier. Gotta keep my fitness up."

"Commendable. Most people wouldn't keep up a routine in circumstances like that."

"Yeah, most people aren't me."

"Are you sure you're not doing that for another particular reason? Or a particular someone?" He chuckles as he watches me.

"Oh crap, you found me out." I release my left hand and inhale, pulling myself up with one hand. I hold myself up for a second, then I hear the door open, but I'm already starting to speak, "How'd you know I took this job," I start to lower myself, "To pick up cute Japanese girls with burn-"

"Ah!" I chose the wrong words for that joke. I'm now staring at the girl with purple hair and burn scars. She's staring at me in surprise, and a little embarrassment, her cheeks turning red because of my comment. Our faces are about a foot apart, she almost walked into my body when she opened the door.

"Oh, sorry. Hi there, and you must be…?" I extend a hand to her.

She looks from my face to my hand a couple times, her hands clutching a couple books and hugging them to her chest. "H...Hanako…" she says, so quietly and timidly that I almost don't hear it even though I'm right in front of her. After a moment she apprehensively extends her own hand.

I give her a gentle shake, despite the scars, her skin is surprisingly soft. I'd like to feel her- no! No! I can't be thinking things like that, she's most likely underage, _and _she's kinda a student under me now. I feel bad about scaring her like that, she's obviously extremely shy and not very good with social situations. "Nice to meet you, Hanako." I let her slip past me and take her seat, and I return to my spot and continue talking with Mr. Mutou. A few minutes later the bell rings again and students start filing back into the room for afternoon classes, Hanako buries her face in a book and no one else even acknowledges her as they walk in. Once everyone is seated and the bell rings again, Mr. Mutou starts a lesson on molecular biology. After about half an hour of lecture, he says that the class will now break into groups and work on their papers. As soon as he does this, Hanako packs her bag and gets up, leaving the room with only a glance at the teacher, who gives her a slight nod. Interesting. No one else even looks at her, except one young man who's sitting next to the pink haired girl.

This must be a normal thing for her. She was very attentive in class, I just hope that this lack of cooperation doesn't affect her grades. I know "participation points" is becoming a bigger thing with schools now that they're trying to pussify students. It seems that Hanako has an understanding or agreement with the teacher. She probably doesn't like working in groups. I can't blame her, some people are stupid.

…

"I dunno, Mr. Roberts, That kinda thing might break patient privacy laws."

"I'm a certified EMT and a medic, I know all about patient privacy, I'll be ok."

"What do you want them for, anyway?"

"I just want to know what exactly is wrong with them so that if something happens in class I know what to do, and it'll help me understand and sympathize with them."

"I don't think they want your sympathy, you should know that better than anyone." The young head nurse smiles at me, he's an interesting fellow, always squinting with a relaxed expression on his face, some jazzy rock music playing quietly in his office.

"Oh yeah, but if there's any way, I'd be grateful." I tell him.

"Hmm." He takes his hands out of his medical coat pockets and stands up, walking over to a series of filing cabinets in one corner. He goes through them and pulls out about two dozen folders, carrying them to his desk, he sets them by me. "You can read through these while I'm here. Once I go home for the night, you'll have to come back tomorrow or something."

"Thanks doc, I'll sneak a beer in here some day." I pick up one of the folders and open it.

"Hahaha! I'll hold you to that." He sits at his computer and resumes his work.

…

I sit back and stretch. "Done." I groan.

The nurse looks at me, then his clock. "Damn, I didn't realize it was this late." It's about 2245. "Did you get what you need?"

"I think so, you want me to put these back?"

"Nah, I'll get 'em tomorrow."

"Alright, have a good night."

"You too."

I step out of the nurse's office in the medical building on campus, heading back to my room. Reading those files took more of a toll on me than I thought it would. It's one thing to read/write a report for a retired sergeant major whose knees hurt because all the cartilage is gone from 20 years of running every day, or a specialist who now has an STD because he was stupid and fucked a girl without a condom while on leave. It's another to read about a little girl who lost her legs in a car crash that killed her dad, or a boy who had a heart attack in high school and now has to take like 20 medications every day to simply reduce the chance of having another in the next few years.

Almost all of the kids in my class have had something really fucked up happen to them in their past, and they're not even out of high school. It's hard to imagine, but it's also commendable, they're all trying as hard as they can to be normal, even though they're not. They're not worried about whether or not people will look at them weird because of their fake arm or cane, they're worried about whether or not they'll get a girlfriend or boyfriend.

I think about all this as I make it back to my room in the dorms. I get undressed and crawl into bed, setting my alarm for about 0600 so I can do a bit of running in the morning. It'll take a while to settle in to this new life.

…

In the morning I wake up and go out to the track to run for about half an hour before school starts. I meet and chat with a couple of the school's track members, including one very interesting girl named Emi. She's one of the best runners on the track team, despite the fact that she has two prosthetic legs. I realize only after talking with her that she's the one whose dad died in a car crash a few years ago. She's not in my class, the nurse accidentally gave me her file along with the others, and I was almost all the way through it before I myself realized it.

After my morning run I showered and changed, and went to the main building to help Mr. Mutou with his lesson for the day. Once the bell rang for lunch I got my food and began searching for a nice quiet place to eat. Hopefully the students will start allowing me to eat with them every now and then, so I don't have to do this every day. After wandering the halls for a little bit I find myself near the library, and I notice a door to a room that's slightly ajar. There's no one around and I don't hear anything on the other side, so I push the door open and peek inside the room.

It's a small room, somewhere between a break room and classroom, with only about three or four tables capable of seating four to six people. Currently the room has only one inhabitant, one who stands out quite a bit compared to most of the other pupils at this school, since she has a head of long, wavy, blonde hair, and a smooth, attractive face that looks more European than Japanese. The girl sitting alone at one of the tables has her eyes closed as she slowly and deliberately brings a small teacup to her lips to drink the hot liquid inside.

"Ooh." I mutter, I have a bad habit of blurting out whatever's going on in my head at the worst possible time. The girl opens her eyes to reveal some incredibly beautiful pale blue irises, her pupils unfocused and cloudy. She looks in the rough direction of the door and asks in a very polite voice, "Hello, is someone there?"

I didn't know that I actually said that out loud, I start a little and feel myself blush. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here, I was just looking for somewhere to sit down, sorry to disturb you, ma'am."

The girl, who looks to be a senior based on her mature look and school uniform, giggles and gives a warm smile, "'Ma'am'? Do I really look that old?"

"Uh, w-well of course not. It's a force of habit for me." Damn you, Army professionalism standards.

"It's quite alright, don't let me scare you away from a peaceful meal, I'm simply waiting for a friend of mine. You may sit with me if you wish."

She has quite the prim and proper way of talking, "Well, in that case, I shall take you up on your offer, many thanks, miss." I enter the room, closing the door behind me, and take a seat opposite her. Even when she's sitting I can tell that she's very tall in comparison to most other Japanese girls, though still not quite as tall as me. Based on her actions, her eyes, our environment, and the cane leaning against the table beside her, I deduce that she must be completely blind. "It's nice to meet you, miss. My name is Jacob Roberts, I'm a teacher's assistant for Mr. Mutou in class 3-3. I just got here yesterday."

"It's nice to meet you as well, Mr. Roberts," The girl opens her eyes as I talk and does her best to look at my face, attempting to be as polite and courteous as possible. She gives a slight bow as she introduces herself, "My name is Lilly Satou, I am the class representative for class 3-2."

"Ah, ok. Oh, you can just call me Jacob." I remember someone telling me that class 3-2 caters more to students who are partially or completely blind, so it makes sense that she'd be in that class. "Um, Lilly, could you hold out your hand real quick?"

Her serene facial expression wavers slightly, and she looks at me with a quizzical look for just a second, but she does still extend her hand. I hold it gently and give her a quick peck on the back of her hand. She starts a little and lets out a surprised "Ooh!" Drawing her hand back with a slight blush. "Sorry, it's something that I just do, my mom told me to always do that when I meet a pretty lady." I chuckle. Of course, I won't tell her that I also enjoy making girls blush, I think that women look cute when they're embarrassed.

Lilly giggles. "My my, what a gentleman you are. I'm sure she's very proud of you." She smiles very warmly and genuinely at me.

"Yeah, she reminds me every time I talk to her." I joke.

We chat for a minute or two, and I hear the door creak open behind me. I turn and see Hanako, of all people, come through the door, carrying an armful of food for herself, and I guess Lilly as well. She has her head down, focusing on not dropping anything as she goes to close the door with her arm. "Is that Hanako?" Lilly asks.

"Yes, s-sorry Lilly," Hanako starts speaking before she turns around, "The line was longer than I wa- Ah!" She turns and sees me, the fact that I'm sitting across from Lilly surprising her. She jumps and drops most of the food she was carrying. Luckily most of it is in some kind of wrap or container. Since I'm the reason she dropped the food, I get up and help her pick it up, apologizing. Once everything's picked up we sit and begin eating. "T-Thanks, Mr. Roberts." Hanako says timidly.

"No problem, I'm here to help with all your problems, even if I'm the one who causes them." I say, drawing a smile from Hanako. She covers her scarred side of her face with her hand as she does so. I've noticed that she does that whenever she thinks someone's full attention is on her. It's probably a habit of hers now, but it still annoys me for some reason. Her files said that she has real bad social anxiety and slight depression from the accident that caused her burns when she was a kid, so that mixed with the usual adolescent desire to be liked by everyone has probably made her think she's ugly or something, which I disagree with.

We eat in silence for the next few minutes, and once we're finished, conversation picks up again, mainly between myself and Lilly, with Hanako only really responding to questions or statements directed right at her. It's interesting, according to the two girls, they've known each other for the last three years, since they live right next to each other in the dorms, and they're very good friends despite being almost polar opposites personality-wise. Lilly behaves like posh royalty, very prim and proper, and Hanako is the most reserved and quiet person I've ever met. Though she does seem more comfortable here than in the classroom, but then again I've only known her for a day and a half.

Lilly starts asking me to tell about myself, so I more or less give her the same speech as in the classroom yesterday. "U-um, Mr. Roberts-" Hanako starts.

"Jacob."

"U-uh-"

"You can call me Jacob. I'm not an official teacher, so you don't have to do the whole Roberts-sensei thing."

"O...Okay… J-Jacob, what made you want to… be a f-firefighter?" She asks, almost out of nowhere.

"Hmm. Well, uh, my dad is a firefighter, and he's one of the coolest people I know, so that's part of it. But also, I love people." She looks at me curiously. "I, I feel this need to protect people, not just family or loved ones, but everyone I'm around. So I decided to go with a job that would allow me to help and protect people. I guess I'm one of those few crazy altruistic people."

"Al...truistic?"

"You'll learn about that later in the year." I smirk. The bell rings, signaling the end of lunch. We pack everything up and head back to the class, saying goodbye to Lilly once our paths diverge. As I walk back to class with Hanako, I notice that she gives me a bit more space than a person normally would, staring straight at the floor in front of her. I hope these kids (why do I call them kids, I'm only 21, I was barely a toddler when they were born) like me more as time goes on.

…

A week and a half later, I walk down the hall humming a little tune to myself. About every other day I go to the "tea room," as we now call it, and hang out with Lilly and Hanako during lunch, chatting and getting to know them. Every other day I'll stay in the cafeteria, or go to a classroom or even the library and hold an impromptu study hall for anyone who's struggling with the lessons. During my time here I've discovered that Hanako enjoys reading and playing chess, I've seen her in the library a couple times in the mornings or during lunch when Lilly has class rep responsibilities. I've also played both her and Lilly at chess a couple times. Lilly is about as good as me (which isn't saying much), but Hanako is amazing. She beats both of us almost every time, and I'm sure that she just lets us win every now and then so we don't stop playing with her.

I've also learned that Lilly wants to be an English teacher, I mentioned that I'm working on a Bachelor's in education and she became very interested in the intricacies of that kind of thing. Right now I'm heading to the tea room once again, when I enter I find a surprise. There's a guy in the room sitting with Lilly and Hanako, talking with them.

I recognize his face, and after a second I remember his name, Hisao, I think. He's very new, he only got to the school just a week or two before I did. He has arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat, and about half a year ago he had a heart attack that hospitalized him for about four months, then he got transferred to Yamaku. Now he has to take over a dozen medications twice a day to keep the chances of having another down by a stupidly marginal percent, any kind of extreme stimuli or trauma to his chest has the risk of setting off another heart attack. He looks at me as I enter, "Oh, Mr. Rober-"

"What the hell are you doing here?" I interrupt him.

"Uh… eating lunch?"

I start slowly pacing toward him, "A teenage boy all alone with two cute girls in an out of the way room? Oh, yeah, I bet you wanna eat something and I'm sure it's not lunch." I glare at him.

He and the two girls start blushing, "U-uh, w-well um- I-" He starts getting flustered.

I start laughing, "Relax man, I'm messing with ya. So, what brings you here today?"

After a second, what I just said processes in his head and he smiles in a guilty way, "Heh, well, I'm supposed to be helping the student council, but… They've been working me to death lately because of the festival coming up and I just need a break. So I'm hiding here." I chuckle, ah yes, Shizune is the class rep for 3-3 _and_ the student council president, she's the blue haired deaf girl, and Misha is her pink haired friend, vice president, and interpreter. From the way they both act in class, Shizune reminds me of some kind of aspiring tyrant. I can only imagine how bad it is when they're by themselves.

Hisao continues, "So, Mr. Rob-"

I slam a knife hand onto the table and point it at him, causing everyone to jump. "Hey guy, I keep telling y'all to just call me Jacob. I'm not your teacher, I'm just a guy learning how to teach. I'm basically you, just a little cooler."

Hisao blinks a couple times, "O...kay, Jacob, uh, what brings _you _here today?"

"Same as you, I guess, doing study halls and stuff all the time kinda wears on you after a while, so I'm just looking to enjoy a nice quiet lunch with these fine young women." I make the girls blush.

Hanako suddenly looks at the clock, "Oh. Lilly, we need to go…" She says quietly.

"Hmm? Oh, I almost forgot." She and Hanako stand up, "I need to grab some books that Yuuko ordered for me from the library." They leave the room, leaving only me and Hisao. I check my phone for messages, and when I look back up, I notice Hisao looking at my eyes. Shifting from one to the other. He then looks out the window and sighs.

"Hey, Jacob, can I confide in you on something?"

"Of course, what's wrong?"

"Well, since I got here, it's been kinda hard to acclimate to the atmosphere. Like, this school is different, obviously, and I feel this urge to ask people about their conditions, so I can understand them, and sometimes I find myself staring, but I know that they don't like talking about it, and it's almost taboo to talk about it but, with people like Hanako, or Emi, it's so obvious, and I want to get to know them but..." He gives a frustrated sigh. "What do I do?"

I sit back and think for a second, "Well, here's what I think: Asking a lot of these kids about their condition, is like asking an emergency services worker about the worst call they've been on, or asking a soldier if they have any war stories about getting shot at. It's basically asking them to relive their worst nightmare. Most people don't like that, and also, everyone here just wants to be a regular person despite their disabilities. You wouldn't like it if people kept going up to you and asking, 'Hey, what's wrong with you?' right?" He shakes his head. "Yeah, so just do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. Just be a good person, and people will open up to you when they start to trust you."

He nods along with what I'm saying. He's a smart guy, I know he gets it. "Okay." Is all I get from him. "Hey, don't worry about it, these people are strong, I doubt too many of them will get too upset with a couple innocent questions."

Hisao looks at me. "So… How'd you lose your eye then?" He asks with a smirk.

I chuckle, shaking my head. "I'm a soldier, I'll let you connect the dots." The bell tolls and we return to class. On the way, he thanks me for talking with him.

…

A couple days later, I decide to take an after-school trip into the small town right outside Yamaku to get some groceries. Once I'm outside the front gates to the campus I spot a solitary figure walking down the road ahead of me. Her rare hair color and and manner of walking makes her easy to identify. I jog to catch up to her and as I approach she turns her head to acknowledge my presence. "Hey Lilly, it's Jacob." I say as I pull up beside her, "Mind if I walk with you?"

"Oh, hello Jacob." She smiles warmly, "Of course you can, I'd actually appreciate the company. Normally Hanako walks into town with me if I need to go buy something, but she said she was busy tonight… And apologized about four times." We both chuckle as we walk down the hill, the tapping of her cane on the road surface creating an odd contrast to the rhythmic clacking sound of our footsteps.

Yamaku is situated on top of a hill, that's part of a small mountain range, with a small town of around 20,000 people situated in the valley between the range Yamaku is on, and another, the town being about a mile away, the walk isn't too bad for most students. The area is heavily wooded, the hills coated in a soft green hue in the early summer, the late afternoon sky is a beautiful orange-purple, golden clouds streaking across the open air. I glance at Lilly, who is walking closely to me, or maybe I'm walking close to her.

She's looking down slightly as she taps her cane in front of herself, feeling her way down the slope. I think about a few things, and then sigh. I'm sure that normally my sigh would've gone unnoticed, it wasn't a loud, exasperated sigh, but because of the peaceful silence of our area, the only real noise being our footsteps and the gentle rustle of the leaves in the calm breeze, as well as Lilly's conditionally acute hearing, she opens her eyes a little and looks in my direction for a moment, a very slight frown and brow furrow forming on her face. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh, well, not, heh, not really. I was just thinking… I hope you don't mind me saying this, but, I can't wait until we develop technology enough to let people like you see. I mean, I look around at this amazing, beautiful world that God has created, and you don't get to fully experience it."

Lilly closes her eyes again and purses her lips in thought for a moment, "Hmm, well I don't particularly mind that, it's not a bad thing to wish for others, to have maximum potential for happiness, but personally I don't mind it at all. I've been blind since I was born, so I only know the world as I experience it now, and I know it would be a very big and jarring change to suddenly be able to see. I would get used to it, of course, but the thought of suddenly having a whole new sense to deal with could be just as bad as losing that sense."

I rub my eyepatch absentmindedly. That makes sense, Lilly's adjusted to life as she is now, just like almost all the other kids at Yamaku, it would be jarring to try and change that. "I see." I say without thinking. "... Ah, dammit. Sorry." I feel like an asshole, I'm glad she can't see how my face is burning up.

Lilly giggles. "It's quite alright, you don't need to change your speech for my sake."

"Thanks, but yeah, I get it, it's hard to adjust to big changes, no matter what form they take." Lilly nods her agreement and we continue in relative silence for the rest of the way down into the town. We go through the streets, this is my first time here, so I'm looking around at all the buildings, trying to memorize pathways and street names. Luckily Lilly seems to know where she's going and we arrive at a small convenience store.

We enter the store and I pick up a basket, then look around the shelves to see what they have available. Lilly retracts her cane and places it in her own basket. As I'm looking around, I suddenly feel something wrap around my arm. "What? Oh." I look and see that Lilly's hand is holding onto my arm. I realize that she's probably gonna need my help to buy stuff since she can't see what's on the shelves.

She let's go of me, her hand hovering over my arm, "I'm sorry, is it alright if I hold on to you?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's fine, I wasn't expecting it, but it's uh, good." We walk up and down the aisles, grabbing what we need, Lilly holding on to me almost like a wife might hold on to her husband's arm while they're out having a stroll. I feel rigid for some reason. "I sure hope no one from the school shows up." I mutter.

"Why?" Lilly asks as I look for a brand of cereal that sounds good to try.

"Well because they're gonna see us, and assume things, and they're gonna point and laugh, and I'm gonna yell 'hey she's blind you punks!' And they're gonna think I'm an asshole, then the dean of the school is gonna call me into his office tomorrow and ask why I'm yelling at his students and it's just not gonna be a good time."

Lilly giggles as I go on my small tirade, "I don't think you'll have to worry about that. Most students know not to ask questions about stuff like this." We get all our groceries, pay for them, and leave the store. Once we're outside I take a minute to put my bags into my large backpack. I take my backpack everywhere I can, and some places that I technically shouldn't, it has medical supplies, some food and water, and… self defense measures in it, with enough room to fit a lot of other stuff.

We begin our walk back through the town and up the hill, our pace a lot slower than earlier on account of the incline and the fact that it's dark outside now. Once we're maybe halfway up the hill, Lilly says, "Jacob, I want to ask, did I do something wrong, in the store? You seemed very tense."

I chuckle. I didn't think it was that obvious. "No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. I just… it's been awhile since someone touched me like that. It felt nice, honestly. I'm a pretty physical person, I express emotions through action. I'm not saying I was trying to control some urge or something, I just… enjoyed the feeling of someone relying on me, I guess."

Lilly is silent for a moment. "You seem like a very dependable person, I'm glad I mwAAH!"

Lilly yelps and falls as she trips and twists her ankle in a small pothole in the road. Her cane clacks and clatters onto the ground and the groceries in her hand go flying.

"Shit." I'm next to her immediately, crouched down and taking off my bag.

"Ah, ow, ow, ah, owie." She's breathing rapidly from the pain, holding her ankle that got twisted.

"Here, here, let me look at it, where's it hurt?" I pull out a flashlight and shine it on her foot. Her ankle doesn't look obviously broken, which is good. "I'm gonna take your shoe off." I tell her as I grab ahold of her dress shoe. She nods, but then cries out in pain and grabs my arm when I try to slide her shoe off.

"It's gonna hurt for a second, but I need to get it off." I tell her.

"O-okay, just give me a-AAAAH!" She yelps again and squeezes my arm as I almost yank the shoe off her foot.

Now that it's off I examine her leg, there's no significant swelling, but I've run into another problem: her stockings. The school has a fairly loose dress code since some students can't quite follow certain rules for one reason or another, so some girls wear black stockings with the green skirt and white button-up long sleeve shirt, and some wear white. Others wear knee-high or thigh high socks. Lilly wears white full-length stockings, it goes really well with her hair and outfit, and I do have to say it makes her legs and thighs look very nice. "Hey, uh, Lilly. I'm gonna need to get your stockings off. Is it alright to tear them?"

She sighs a little. "Y-yes. I have a few spares in my room."

"Alright." I prop her calf up on my knee and begin tearing just above her ankle, working on separating everything below her ankle so I can just peel it off like a sock. "Sorry about this… I'm gonna be honest, this is the last situation I thought I'd be tearing your stockings in." We both laugh, it is the best medicine after all. I get the stocking off, giving me a clearer view of her pale foot.

Don't worry, I don't have a foot fetish or anything weird like that.

Her ankle is a little red and starting to swell up a bit, I feel her foot a little, Lilly doesn't react too much, so I don't think it's broken, but I want to keep the swelling in check, so I rummage through my bag for an ice pack and bandage. "Ok, I'm gonna put this ice pack on, and we'll get you back to your room."

Lilly nods and I pop the ice pack, she hisses a bit when I place it on her foot, but she soon relaxes once her ankle starts going numb. "Jacob, why do you, nn, have medical supplies on you?" She asks as I wrap the bandage around the pack, keeping it in place.

"In case something bad happens, just like it did now." I say simply. "I have to be prepared for anything."

She giggles a bit. "There's a fine line between prepared and paranoid. You should have a chat with Kenji some time."

I smile, "Call me paranoid again, and I'll throw a hasty tourniquet on your leg."

"A hasty… What?"

"Tourniquet, it's a band that you wrap around a limb to cut off blood flow and stop bleeding. I'd have to put it…" I trace my finger up her leg and stop at her upper thigh, I can just barely hear her gasp. "Way up here, and tighten it." I squeeze the muscle on her surprisingly thick thigh, "A lot." I shine my light on her face for a second, she's blushing, mission accomplished.

"Does it hurt?" She asks, trying to compose herself and change the subject.

"Oh, it hurts like you wouldn't believe." I pack everything back into my bag and throw it over my shoulder. "Come on, let's get back to school before they close the gate." I help her up and support her, wrapping her arm around my shoulders and letting her use me as a crutch. We start making our way, very slowly, up the rest of the hill. Lilly is surprisingly light, she looks to be maybe 5' 6" and she feels like she weighs maybe 120 pounds, a good healthy weight.

Even though Lilly weighs considerably less than the soldiers I've had to carry before, she's relying solely on me to walk, and I'm also carrying maybe 75 pounds worth of stuff on my back, on top of the fact that we're going uphill at about a 30 degree angle. By the time we're approaching the gate, I'm almost drenched in sweat, and I'm panting from exertion. "I know, your sense of smell, is stronger than most. I hope, you don't mind my sweat. Heheh." I tell her. My shirt is sticking to my back.

"It's ok… I don't mind it, it doesn't actually, smell that bad. Is that weird?"

"Uh, yeah, very weird." We both chuckle. I probably shouldn't tell her that I was looking over course notes for tomorrow, and Hanako's class is gonna learn that body odor is determined by amino acids in the endocrine system, which helps bolster the immune system, as determined by their genetics, and if one particular person's natural body odor smells good to another person, then that means that those two people have different immune systems, and their offspring (if they have any) will have stronger immune systems as a result of each parent's genetics being passed down.

I chuckle again as I think about that. Lilly is a good looking woman, I wouldn't mind having a couple- what the fuck am I thinking? She's still a student. We make it back onto school grounds, and we stagger up the steps to the dorms, and luckily the guard that roams around the building isn't there at the moment, so we're able to sneak into the girls' building and through the halls to her room. She uses her keys to unlock her door and we enter. I flick the switch on, and look around her room, it's very bare bones, the same furniture as all the other rooms, with almost no pieces of decoration, which makes sense. I set my bag down by her bed and help her to sit on her bed. "And there you go, ma'am. We've returned safely. Keep the ice on for a bit longer, it's probably not gonna be cool for too much longer, you can just toss it when you're done. Tomorrow, if your foot still hurts real bad, or if it's still swollen, go to the nurse. I'll call you- do you have a phone?"

"Yes."

"Can I see it?" She goes into her bag and pulls out a flip phone, I go through it and enter my number into it, and put her number in my phone. "Ok, I'll call you tomorrow to check up-" I talk as I mess with the phones, and suddenly I feel Lilly's arms around me, her head resting on my shoulder. I don't know what to do, I just sit there, frozen, tensed up. It feels really nice. Her body is warm and soft. It's been a while since I've felt this.

"Thank you, Jacob… You seemed like you need a hug." She giggles. After a second she lets me go. "I think I'll be ok, if I have any issues I'll call the nursing staff and you tomorrow… Um, I have one last thing to ask of you. Can I touch your face?"

"Huh?" I'm taken aback a bit.

"I would like to have a better idea of what you look like."

"Oh, uh, sure."

Lilly positions herself, and I turn to face her. She raises one hand, and I guide it onto my chin and jaw. She feels my lower face, brushing her fingers across my beard and sideburns that I forgot to shave this morning. Her hand moves to my lips and moustache, then my nose and cheeks. She then moves up the left side of my face. I notice that when Lilly is focusing on something, she opens her eyes, staring at nothing, in contrast to how most people close their eyes when focusing on something other than sight.

Her fingers brush against my eyepatch and stop. She feels it a little more, confused. "What..?" She says softly. I smile, "Oh yeah, I never told you about that did I? I uh, lost that eye, a few months ago." Her confused look turns to concern, and she now has both hands on my face, feeling every inch of my cheeks, eyelids, temples, forehead. She runs her fingers through my hair and around my ears. I look into her eyes as she does this, they're beautiful, pale blue with grey pupils. I'm fascinated by them, I gaze into her eyes until she's done. I'm a sucker for girls with pretty eyes.

Lilly finally stops, putting her hands down. "Thank you, Jacob." She composes herself again.

I look at her for a moment, then finally take a deep breath. "Alright, if you have any problems, let me know. I set my number to speed dial 3." I get up.

What? You thought I was gonna kiss her or something, didn't you? Well, this ain't that kind of fanfiction.

I grab my bag and go to the door, I flick the lights off, and from the light of the hallway I can see Lilly still sitting on her bed. "Aren't you gonna lay down?" I ask her.

She smiles. "I would, but I'd rather not fall asleep in my uniform."

I'm confused. Then take it off… Oh, oh I get it, you need help changing don't you?" I chuckle.

Lilly covers her mouth as she giggles, trying to hide either her laughing or her blushing. "I think I'll manage by myself, thank you."

"Ok, have it your way, my offer still stands though. Have a good night, Lilly."

"You as well, Jacob." I close her door and make my way to my room in the other building. Luckily there's no security or anyone to question me as I exit the girls' dorm at… 2254. I flop onto my bed after dumping my bag on the floor and fall asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning I sleep through my 0600 alarm, but still wake up early enough to get ready for work without being rushed. I didn't get any calls or messages from Lilly last night, but I still give her a call to make sure she's fine. She informs me that she is, and that I'll see her during lunch, which I do.

About two weeks go by, same old same old. One day, Lilly calls me after school, abd tells me that Hanako's birthday is coming up. "I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me tomorrow when I go into town to get her a present." She says.

"Sure, are you gonna have some kind of party for her?"

"Yes, it won't be anything too extravagant, we'll just relax in my room. I was thinking just you, me, Hisao, and her. I'll probably do it at the end of the week."

Makes sense, anything more and Hanako might get uncomfortable. "Alright. But, her birthday isn't until like a month from now. Why are you having her party so early?"

"..." There's silence on the other end of the line for a moment, I sit on my bed patiently. "I'll be leaving on a trip to see my parents next week, and I'll be gone for about two weeks."

Oh yeah, she did tell me that she's half Scottish, and her parents moved to Scotland because of a job prospect for her father when Lilly was fairly young, leaving her in the care of her older sister, Akira. "Oh, cool. Any particular reason?"

"My aunt is… ill, and she may not live much longer, my family wants me there to see her pass, if she does, and attend the funeral."

"Oh, shit, sorry to hear that. I'll say a few prayers for your family."

"Thank you. Oh, and Jacob, there's something I'd like you to do while I'm gone. I'd like you to keep an eye on Hanako."

"Okay… Why?"

"Has she told you about her parents?"

"No, but I'm, uh, aware of her situation." The same fire that gave Hanako her scars killed both her parents, and apparently it happened a few days after her birthday. That was about ten years ago.

"Yes, whenever her birthday comes around, she gets… depressed, she becomes very, very reclusive, locking herself in her room more and more, not talking to anyone, barely eating. It starts about a week before her birthday, and ends a day or two afterwards."

"Ok," Damn, that's bad. "Why does she do that?"

"I think she feels guilty, her birthday is a reminder for her that she's still alive and they aren't."

"Damn it. What should I do then?"

"Not too much, I tried making her feel better before by trying to be with her, but it seems like the more attention she's given, the worse she feels. She's probably done it every year since her parents died, so I'm not too worried about her hurting herself. Just make sure she eats and drinks, and keeps up with her school work."

I sigh. "Ok, thanks for letting me know that. Alright, see you tomorrow, Lilly."

"You as well, Jacob."

…

A couple days later, Lilly and I take a trip into the city, about an hour away by train from the town by Yamaku. We spend most of the day wandering through the streets, peeking into different shops to look for something that Hanako might like. We eventually find an out of the way antique store owned by a very quiet old man. In that store we found our gifts for Hanako: an old porcelain doll from Lilly, apparently she got Hanako one last year and Hanako really liked it, and I got Hanako a chess board. It's really cool, at least I think it is, because the board itself is painted to resemble a battlefield, and the pieces are based around medieval soldiers instead of the standard look for chess pieces.

After we bought the gifts we decided to head back to Yamaku. Along the way, Lilly remarked: "This was almost like a date, wasn't it?" With a smile.

"Oh no, don't go sayin' things like that." I said, "Someone's gonna hear that and recognize us, and then the school board will have my ass."

And now, a few days later, I'm walking down the hall of the girl's' dorm, a bag in my hand containing my present for Hanako. That last comment toward Lilly made me do some research when I got back to my room. This school, just like any other, has pretty strict policies regarding teacher-student relationships. Basically: Don't. But, because I'm one: a foreigner, and two: not a full-time employee or registered teacher, I could technically have a relationship with one of the students (not that I'd want to, but it's good to know these things), so long as they are of age and it's consensual and all that other stuff. Obviously the school frowns upon someone like me doing anything with a student in my class, since I'm assigned specifically to class 3-3, and if I'm in a relationship then I might give that student special treatment.

So yeah, banging crippled chicks is a no go at this point. On top of the school, I'm sure my leadership and unit wouldn't take too kindly to finding out I'm dating a high school student, it doesn't really roll off the tongue well. So anyways, I finally reach Lilly's room and knock. I wasn't sure what I should be wearing, it sounds pretty casual, so I went with jeans and a black t-shirt with some "hooah hooah grunt style" saying on the back. I hear Lilly call out for me to come in from inside, and so I open the door and step in, introducing myself.

In the middle of Lilly's room is a small low-standing table that they've set up, a tea set sitting on it. Lilly and Hanako are sitting on the floor at the table, across from each other. I look at them for a second, Lilly has on a navy blue pajama top and matching shorts, her outfit somehow manages to draw out her hair and eyes, and accentuates her legs, which are laid out in front of her. They look, what's the word? Oh yeah, delicious. Hanako has on a pink nightgown that looks maybe just a little too big for her slender frame, her sleeves come down over her hands and the neck exposes her shoulders more than she probably wants it too.

Hanako is facing the door and looks at me as I come in, blushing a little and shrinking down from embarrassment at me seeing her in such casual clothing. Lilly has her head turned in my direction, looking towards the door, smiling in her usual warm, inviting manner. "Come in, Jacob, make yourself comfortable." She says.

I start taking my shoes off. "Well shit, if I knew this was gonna be a sleepover I woulda wore my pajamas." I joke.

Both girls smile. "It's not a sleepover, and I don't think the school would like you sleeping here." Lilly says.

"Oh hell no." I say, walking up to the table. "Hanako, could you stand up real quick?"

Hanako looks from me to Lilly, then stands. I wrap my arms around her and squeeze a bit, "Happy birthday." I say quietly. I let her go after a second, her face is a similar shade of pink as her gown. She smiles in a weird way, not quite uncomfortable but also not completely fine with the situation. Hanako sits back down, and I place my bag by Lilly's, behind her, and sit down as well, telling myself not to look down both girls' shirts as I do so but doing it anyway. I mean it's not like they'd notice, Hanako avoids eye contact like it's the plague, and Lilly… Well… Anyways, once I'm seated, Hanako starts tensing up, as if she's waiting for something terrifying to happen. Suddenly Hanako jumps as there's another knock on Lilly's door. "Come in, Hisao." She says.

Hisao walks in, taking off his shoes and sitting down, "How'd you know it was me, Lilly?" He asks.

Lilly smiles a little impishly, "I guessed. Hanako, would you like to do the honors?" She opens her eyes and looks in Hanako's direction.

Hanako looks around at the table, resting her eyes on me, with her bangs covering one eye on her scarred side of her face, the one eye I can see clearly looks almost pleadingly into my soul. "J-Jacob, would… would y-you l-l-like some… uh…"

"Yes, I'd like a bit of tea, thank you." Ah yes, the tea ceremony or whatever it's called. Hanako holds one of the cups and saucers and places it in front of me, the delicately balanced china betraying her shaky hands. She does the same, asking the integers if they want any tea, then giving them a cup, her hands and voice having the same shakiness. She then takes the teapot and pours us all a cup of tea, a couple drops fall onto the saucer instead of the cup when she pours Lilly's drink, not really a big deal, it's not Hanako's fault at all, but by her reaction you'd think she just dumped the whole pot onto Lilly's lap. I happen to notice that as Hanako works, Hisao has his eyes almost glued to her, watching her every movement. I smile at that.

Throughout the whole process it's clear that Hanako is extremely anxious about not screwing it up. Once she's finished she heaves a large sigh and almost deflates. I chuckle, "Oh Hanako, you are so adorable." I say.

"H-Huh?"

"This ain't a job interview, you don't need to impress us, we're your friends, you can relax a little around us, I don't think anyone here will mind if your little tea pouring thing isn't perfect."

"I-I'm just t-trying to make s-sure it's r-right."

"That's fine but it looked pretty good to me, all things considered."

We continue talking for a few minutes, then I hear the door open, and I see Hanako look up and say, "Oh, Akira."

I turn and look, and walking through the door is a woman about my age, maybe a couple years older. She's wearing a black striped suit, holding a tall bag that she sets down as she enters, "Yo!" She calls out fairly loudly as she does so. She has short hair and an androgynous face, as well as a flat chest. If it weren't for me hearing her name and noting the obviously female suit, I might've thought she was a guy. "Hey Lilly. Happy birthday, Hanako!" She sits down next to Lilly before she even notices me or Hisao. For a second I think that she might be blind too, despite her crimson eyes… Crimson? Interesting… But then she glances at me and says, "Ah, crap, where're my manners? Akira Satou."

She extends a hand to me and I shake it, "Jacob."

"So you must be Hisao, then." She turns her attention to him and shakes his hand over the table as well. "Heard a lot about you." She winks at him with a grin.

Hisao is momentarily flustered by this remark, unsure of what to make of it. Hanako asks her, "Would you like some tea, Akira?" She reaches for one final teacup. She must have known Akira almost as long as Lilly, she seems about as comfortable around her as she is with her sister.

"Nah, thanks though, I'm just popping by for a minute to drop that off," Akira motions to the tall brown paper bag by the door, "And say hi. They still need me back at the office tonight." Once she finishes, she sighs like someone who's overworked.

Lilly now has a somewhat sad and lonely look on her face, she turns to her sister, "Are you sure you can't stay for a little while?"

"Yeah, pretty sure, don't want the boss gettin' mad at me… again." She stands, brushing off her pants, "I'll call you sometime tomorrow and chat, Lilly. Hope you like your presents, Hanako, don't have _too much _fun while I'm gone. It was nice to at least meet you, Hisao, Jacob." She smiles devilishly as she walks out.

After a moment, Lilly picks herself back up and says, "Well, I believe now would be a good time for presents. Hisao, could you set them on the table, please?"

Hisao gets up and grabs the bags and box that are Hanako's presents, and sets them on the table in front of her. She then begins to open the gifts, starting with Hisao's, which is a fairly large box. She tears apart the wrapping paper and reveals a plain cardboard box that's taped up. Hanako starts messing with the tape, trying to undo it, but she's one of the few females I've seen keep her nails short and her efforts are fruitless.

"Here." I reach into my pocket and produce my pocket knife, opening the blade and handing it to her. Both Hanako and Hisao look from the knife to me, looks of surprise on their faces. "...What? It's a knife."

"Isn't it… a-against the r-rules to have a k-knife in school?" Hanako asks.

"No, it's against the rules to have a weapon in school. Knives are tools, just like lighters and scissors and pencils and a whole lot of other things." I say. "Just take it, if you somehow manage to cut yourself on this super dull blade, I'll give you band-aid." I smile.

Hanako takes the knife and uses it to cut open the box, and inside is a CD-player-looking thing with a microphone attached to it. She takes it out and looks at it. "A… K-Karaoke machine?"

She looks at Hisao, who smiles awkwardly, "Yeah, Lilly told me once that you like to sing karaoke sometimes, so I thought you'd like that, and we could, uh, play around with it, sometimes."

Hanako turns red and looks at Lilly. "Y-You told them?" She says quietly.

Lilly beams at her, eyes closed as usual. "Yes, I personally think your singing voice is lovely, and you should do it more." She's like a mom trying to get her kid to try something new.

Hanako looks back at Hisao, "T-Thanks, Hisao." After her apology she avoids eye contact with him.

"Hey, if you don't like it, I'll take it. I was in choir for six years in school, I like singing. But it'll take me a while to get used to J-Pop." I say.

"N-No, I like it… I'll use it." She says. Hanako then moves on to opening Lilly's present. Once the doll is out of the bag she holds it very, very delicately and looks at it. The doll has a green dress and emerald eyes. Hanako stares at it in some expression resembling awe for a few moments. "It… It's beautiful, Lilly." She says eventually. Lilly then takes a minute to explain the process of us finding it and buying it, though Hanako doesn't seem to hear her. She's oddly enraptured by the doll, I didn't realize that she liked them so much.

Her actions remind me of the main idea around Yamaku high school: Even these kids, who have these horrible disfigurements and issues, are still just kids. Hanako doesn't look any different from any other girl her age right now. After a bit she snaps back into reality and sets the doll to the side, picking up the bag with my gift in it. She unwraps the board and looks at it, then undoes the latch holding the pieces stored inside the board. She takes out a few of the pieces and examines them. "T-Thank you, Jacob. It's… Cool." She says simply.

"No problem. You'd better watch yourself next time we play, I'll have the home field advantage." I say. Hanako looks at all her presents, then smiles, a very warm, genuine smile that I don't think I've seen on her before. It's a very nice change to the usual timid look on her face.

Hanako then reaches for the final present from Akira. I notice Lilly's smile broaden as she does so. Hanako opens the brown paper bag and peers in, her eyes suddenly widening. She reaches in and pulls out a bottle, then another, then a few glasses. "Wine?" She asks incredulously.

My heart stops. Lilly starts to speak but is interrupted by my sudden "WHAT!?" that causes everyone to jump as I snatch one of the bottles out of Hanako's hands and look at it. It's definitely wine, fairly cheap but not the cheapest looking stuff I've seen. It's a white wine, 16% alcohol, that's pretty high for wine. I start losing my shit. I almost slam the bottle back down on the table, barely avoiding my teacup, and I get up and start pacing around the room, my mind a blur of thoughts. "Oh no no no no no. Fuck, fuck, fuck." I lock Lilly's door and go to sit back down. Lilly still has a cool, confident smile on her face as I talk. "Lilly, how- Do you realize how bad this is? Do you?"

Lilly opens her eyes and looks at me, "It should be fine as long-"

"No! It's not fine! Do you know what I should do now? I should take this and turn it in to the security guard, but I can't! Because not only will all three of you get in huge trouble with the school, Akira will get fucked over legally. She'll get charged with _three _counts of providing alcohol to a minor for consumption. Also, it'll be pretty hard to explain why Hisao and I are hanging out here in the _girls _dorm at night! God dammit!"

Lilly's expression changes as I talk. "So, what should we do?"

I think for a moment. "I don't wanna ruin your birthday, Hanako. So… I will allow you to have just a little bit of the wine, but I'm taking it back to my room when we're done so I can get rid of it. Since it's just us, and it's a party, I may as well let you indulge yourselves a little, if you want."

Hanako and Lilly look eager to try the wine, though maybe a little scared from my ranting. Hisao, however, looks very unsure of himself. I just remembered his condition, and all the meds he has to take. He's probably thinking the same thing I am when he looks at me and says, "Uh, well, I uh, I don't wanna be a party pooper, but honestly I don't want to try it, and I still have a bit of work to do, so I'll see you all tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Hanako." He stands up and leaves, Hanako thanking him for his present as he does so.

Lilly glances in my direction, "Would you like to absolve yourself of blame and guilt as well?" She smirks.

I sigh. "No, I'll stay. You two need an adult, anyway." Hanako takes one of the bottles and manages to pop the cork off.

…

About half an hour later, both bottles are completely empty. I had a glass from each, fairly quickly, as did both girls, and then nature made a call and I had to use the restroom. In the roughly ten minutes it took me to walk down the hall to the public restroom, use it, and come back, the girls managed to drain the remainder of the bottles by themselves. When I re-enter the room, both bottles are tipped over, and Hanako and Lilly are hugging each other, Hanako sobbing into Lilly's chest.

Lilly strokes Hanako's head, as if she were her mother comforting her after a nightmare. Both girls are red-faced and swaying even though they're sitting down, obviously drunk. "I'm sho happy, yer' my… *sniff* my friends." Hanako slurs as she talks. "I'm so- sorry tha' I din' get anythin' fer you."

I lock Lilly's door and turn as the buzz from the two glasses I had a few minutes ago hit me, bringing a wave of dizziness that makes me sit down quickly beside them. Lilly giggles, "You're such a good girl, Hanako. You don' need to get us anythin'. Is your birthday after all. We love you no matter what. Right Jacob?" I didn't realize she noticed me enter again.

Hanako opens her teary eyes and locks them onto me. "Is… Is that true? Do you love me?"

What the hell is going on? Am I asleep? Did I pass out at some point? I don't think so, but… I barely had anything to drink.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. I love you like you're family, I want to protect you." I say.

"I don't l-like that, I don't need to be protected, there's… g-gotta be something." She lets go of Lilly and starts crawling towards me.

So I have this problem of saying things I really shouldn't say at the wrong time. "I don't know what you want me to say." I hold my hands up as she almost climbs on top of me. Her hair covering most of her face reminds me of the girl from the ring, and her one eye that I can barely see has a desperation behind it, not like a sexual desire or anything, but just a desire to know what I want. She's completely different from her usual self, I can tell she won't leave me alone until I say something.

"Hanakoooo, don't harrash Jacob..." Lilly starts.

"I mean I'd be down for a blowjob but…" I start laughing to indicate to them that I'm joking. Maybe I am more than buzzed, I'm not a huge drinker anyway.

Hanako stops and backs up, and both her and Lilly turn about as red as tomatoes. Hanako looks back at Lilly, then at me again. "Uh… Uh…" Hanako doesn't know how to react, Lilly starts feeling her way to Hanako, and once she reaches her she starts whispering in her ear.

I start blushing myself, watching Hanako flick her eyes from me to Lilly, a look of shock on her face. Even though they're like three feet away from me, I can't hear what Lilly's saying. After almost a minute, Lilly stops and Hanako looks at me for a long moment before saying, "J… Jacob, I um, I h-have something I'd l-like t-to give… you."

My heart stops for a second, I have a pretty good idea what this is. "What is it?" I ask apprehensively.

"It's a s-surprise. Could you… sit on the b-bed?"

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. What the hell did I just get myself into? Is this even legal? I guess the age of consent in Japan is like 14 or some- No! Don't think like that! These two would never do something like that, she's probably just gonna go into her room and grab something to give me, I'll just go along with it. I get up and take a seat on Lilly's bed. Hanako gets up as well and staggers to Lilly's dresser, opening the drawers and rummaging through them until she finds some of Lilly's stockings. She walks over to me and starts wrapping them around my eyes, effectively blinding me. "You're giving me Lilly's underwear?" I joke as she does this.

Lilly giggles and before I'm completely blinded I notice Hanako smile a bit. Once she's done, she says, "Ok, now… lay down on the bed."

**Lemon imminent**

Oh no. I comply with her directions, laying on my back. She tells me to raise my hands above my head. I do, and then feel her wrapping some more stockings around my wrists and tying them to the bed frame, binding me in place. This is not good. This is very not good. I hear movement around and on the bed. I'm about to ask Hanako what she's doing when suddenly someone unzips my pants. The start of my question is turned into a slight yelp of surprise as my underwear is pulled down and a hand starts stroking my penis.

I'm not gonna lie, I instantly become hard, and at this point, even though I didn't really ask for this, I'm not gonna say no. The hand continues working it's way up and down my shaft, and without my sight, the sensation is somehow amplified beyond what it would normally be, causing a wave of pleasure to hit me. I start breathing heavily, trying not to make noise. I was not expecting this at all, I then feel one of the girls practically lay on top of me, resting her head next to mine. I feel her breath and smell the alcohol as she caresses my face with one hand, and joins the other in jerking me off with the other. After a minute, the first girl stops stroking me and I can sense a weight on the bed between my spread legs. And then I feel something else rubbing against my dick. It's not hands this time, it's… feet.

One of the girls is giving me a handjob while the other is giving me a footjob. This is surreal, and it feels amazing. I hear wet sounds, and the erotic gasps and moans of the girls, making me think they're pleasuring themselves as well as me. This continues for a couple more minutes, I'm getting to the breaking point, but thankfully the girls stop, the hand and feet removing themselves from my member. The girl on top of me spins herself around, and the other adjusts herself on the bed and just as I think I'm in the clear, a hand creeps it's way down my abdomen, and to my dick, then almost at the same time, both girls engulf me, one swallowing my cock all the way to the base, and the other sucking on my balls. This sends me over the edge and I climax with a gasp, pumping my load into the mouth of the girl deepthroating me, who swallows it, sucking everything out. Both girls give a muffled shriek as I do this, I don't know if it's because I surprised them or if they came too.

**Lemon over**

Once I finish, I lay there panting, the girls getting off me. After a moment the girls untie me and I pull the makeshift blindfold off. I look at them, they're panting as well, and a little disheveled. "I uh… I think now would be a good time to go to bed." I say, unsure of what the hell else I'm supposed to say in a situation like this. I pray that none of us remember this night.

I pick up by myself, Lilly flopping onto her bed and promptly passing out. Hanako stands by the door, holding her presents, looking tired and ragged. Once I have everything picked up as much as I can I take the trash and help Hanako to her room, she leans on me with all her weight, and once I get her to her bed in her extremely barren room she too simply faceplants into it and falls asleep. I exit her room and make my way back to the men's dorm, taking care not to be noticed by the security guard now that it's well past curfew. I dump the trash and bottles in a dumpster beside the building before I go in, and once I get to my room I set an alarm, deciding to skip the morning run.

…

I wake up to my alarm, and as I get ready I think back to the previous night's events. I remember the tea, Hisao and Akira, her presents, the wine, and… the other stuff. I give Lilly a call. After about ten rings she answers with an extremely groggy voice. "Hello?"

"Hey Lilly, it's Jacob."

"Hello Jacob, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing. I was just checking up on you. What do you remember from last night?"

There's silence for a couple moments. "I… Remember having tea and chatting with Akira and Hisao, then Hanako opened her presents. Then we started drinking the wine and… I guess I fell asleep, I remember something about my bed for some reason, but… It's like a dream… I didn't do anything embarrassing did I?"

"Uh, no, you two downed those bottles while I went to the bathroom, when I came back Hanako was hugging you, saying she was sorry about not getting you anything, then you said you were sleepy and went to bed. I picked things up and helped Hanako to her room, then went back to mine. How you feeling?"

"Terrible. I have a migraine and I'm thirsty. I don't think I'll be able to make it to school today, can you let my teacher know?"

"Yeah sure, I'll pop by and let her know."

"Thank you, I'm going back to sleep."

"Drink water."

"Mhm." *Click*

I feel kinda bad for not telling Lilly everything, but I have no idea how she would react to knowing what she and Hanako did, and I doubt she'd ever want to be around me again if she knew. I call Hanako and have pretty much the same conversation with her, and if I can't tell Lilly what happened, you bet your ass I won't tell Hanako. I make it to class with only a couple minutes to spare, Hanako never shows up to class that day.

…

At the end of the week, Lilly leaves for her trip to Scotland. Her flight leaves at around two in the morning, so she's heading to the airport pretty late at night. Hisao, Hanako, and I see her off at the front gate, and after a hug from Hanako and some farewells from myself and Hisao, Lilly climbs into the passenger side of Akira's car. Akira says that they should hopefully be back in a couple weeks, and climbs into the driver's seat. The car takes off and Lilly turns to wave a goodbye at us. We all give a wave back, either not realizing or not caring that she can't see it.

I glance at the two students standing by the road with me, both of whom look fairly downtrodden, and I remember what Lilly told me about Hanako's condition. "Well, no sense in standing around being all gloomy." I say after a moment, "Let's go into the city tomorrow."

Hisao looks at me, Hanako seems unsure. "Sounds good to me, I got my homework done for the weekend." Hisao says.

He and I look to Hanako for her input. "I… I'd like to g-go too." She says after some consideration. I honestly wasn't expecting that, given her propensity to seclude herself around this time of the year. We agree on a time to meet up tomorrow and head back to our rooms for the night. I get on my computer before I turn the lights off and look at things to do in the city.

…

The next morning, around 11am, Hanako and I are waiting at the gate for Hisao. He doesn't show up, even ten minutes after the time we agreed on. I decide to call his cell, he picks up after a few rings. "Hello?"

"It's Jacob, where are you?"

"Oh, uh, in the library."

"Why?"

"Sorry, I just remembered this morning that I have a paper due for Social Studies on Monday, and I haven't started it yet. This is probably going to take me all day."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. "Alright, well, let me know if you still wanna go into town, I'll let you know where we're at."

"Ok, bye."

"Bye." I end the call and turn to Hanako, "So, Hisao won't be coming today, most likely. You still wanna go?"

She looks at the ground for a second and fidgets, then glances back up at me. "Y-Yes."

"Alright, let's go." I tighten the straps on my backpack and start walking down the hill into town to catch a train. "But don't get any funny ideas. This ain't a date."

…

Hanako and I spend most of the day walking through the large city about an hour away from Yamaku, window shopping and buying snacks from small family owned restaurants. At one point Hanako enters a bookstore and we end up spending a good chunk of the afternoon inside, flipping through a bunch of novels that pique our interests. It's now nighttime, and the early summer sun is replaced by the glow of the millions of lights within the buildings and streetlights. It's weird how different the feel is in a place when it's night versus day.

Hanako and I stroll down the street, while I'm looking around at the various restaurants and clubs in the area, Hanako has her eyes on the ground at our feet, hands tugging at the large cap she wears, combining it with her denim jacket to try and mask her scars, even though it's dark and most people don't notice her. Hanako keeps a healthy distance from me, and eventually a half-drunk businessman bumps into her, not paying attention as he staggers down the street in the opposite direction as us.

Even though it wasn't her fault, Hanako hastily mumbles an apology, but the man doesn't even acknowledge her as he passes. I gently grab her arm and pull her a little closer to me, so that there's no more space between us for people to walk through, and then let go. "You can walk next to me, I don't bite… Unless you want me too." I chuckle and smile as I keep looking forward. I barely get a "Mmm." from Hanako.

I think for a moment of how disappointing it is that Hisao couldn't be here, I'm sure he would enjoy this, he seems like the kind of guy to just sit back and take in all the sensations around him. I notice a decent looking club that we almost pass and decide to enter, Hanako right behind me. It's like most other clubs, lots of tables and chairs in one big room, a bar on one wall, a stage with some local cover band on the other. I look around, letting my eyes adjust to the dim light and my nose to the slight odor of cigarettes. I glance at Hanako, who doesn't seem thrilled at the prospect of sitting at a table near so many people, there's maybe 100 in the whole room.

I scan the room one more time, almost thinking of leaving and finding somewhere else to sit and relax, but then I spot a small alcove in the back of the room. Hanako follows me as I make my way over to it, it's in a corner past the bar and there's no one around it, with a billiards table set up inside. I walk over and inspect the table, as well as the cue's on a rack along a wall, everything seems to be in good condition. "Wanna go a few rounds?" I ask my female companion. She gives me an enthusiastic nod, and I set my bag down on a chair as she places the balls on the table. I pick up a cue and rub that blue chalk stuff on the tip, because I need to do that for some reason. Once Hanako has the balls lined up I hand her the cue and grab another. "I just wanna warn you: I am horrendous at this." I joke.

That gets a little smile from Hanako, "I-I'm not… very good e-either. It's b-been a while… Would you like t-to break?"

"Yeah, sure." She steps back and I line up the shot, striking the cue ball and sending it careening towards the rest of the balls, scattering them across the surface of the table.

"That was a g-good break." Hanako says, examining the table.

I look as well, and chuckle to myself, most of the solids are in a fairly easy position to be sunk, and I know she's gonna go for those. "No, not for me."

We begin the game, Hanako immediately sinking a solid, leaving me to scrape up the stripes. While we play, there's a pretty heavy silence between us, with both of us focusing on the game. I watch Hanako as she makes her shots, she has the same focused, almost intense look on her face as when she plays chess. She must be a pretty competitive person, despite her timidness. As she prepares to strike the ball for the seventh time this game, I casually listen to the music playing throughout the building, it's a smooth jazz tune being played by whoever is on stage, setting the tone for the dark, easy-going environment of the rest of the club.

There actually isn't a whole lot of noise right now other than the music and the clacking of the balls against each other on the pool table. There are a few people whose conversations are getting louder and louder with each drink they consume, but all in all it's a very relaxed space, I might take my buddies here to hang out next time they're on leave or have a long weekend. "Wish they played something else… What kind of music do you listen to, Hanako?" I ask her suddenly, in English, lost in my own thoughts and getting a little tired of the growing awkwardness from our lack of conversation.

Hanako looks up at me with her one visible eye, still poised in the position she's in to make the shot she's trying, and then she says, "R-Rock… Like m-modern rock." In English as well.

I smile, I don't know what I was expecting but it's kinda funny to think of her jamming out to some Shinedown or Breaking Benjamin. "Alright, I don't judge, I'm a metal guy so- wait, you speak English?"

She stops and stands up straight, then nods, "Y-Yes, I'm not f-fluent in it, but I know a good amount."

"Huh, who taught you?" English in Japan is kinda like Spanish in America, the very basics are taught so that most high school graduates can communicate at like a third grade level, but if you wanna be fluent at it you have to put in more effort than the school system is willing to put in to teach you. So Hanako being fluent-ish in it now is pretty impressive.

"My… My parents taught me English along with Japanese when I was g-growing up. My f-father was a… J-Japanese... rep-re-sen-ta-tive... of a British c-company… um, so he had to know English to talk with business p-partners. And my mom was… a middle school teacher. They both taught me when I was little, and t-they're the ones who taught me chess and other games… T-Then, when… When I was at the orphanage… The other kids bullied me a lot, because of… my…" She reaches up with one hand and covers the scarred side of her face, I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. "Um, so I… I would g-go to the library a, a lot and read. I kept reading lots of books, and n-now I read books in English and Japanese to k-keep up with it."

I listen silently as Hanako speaks. The way she talks about all this is familiar to me, because I do it too. She has all these things in her head to get out but no one to talk to. I'm sure I'm only the third or fourth person she's told this stuff to. "Hmm, that's impressive. I remember my dad once said, 'Don't get mad when someone can't speak your language, it means they can speak another one, and just because you can't understand them, doesn't mean they can't understand you.'"

Hanako makes her shot, sinking another ball. "When did you… learn J-Japanese?"

"Oh, let's see… I've always been fascinated by languages, also I started watching anime in middle school, so I started kinda teaching myself since about high school. I took lessons in college, so now I'm fluent, for the most part, in English (duh), Japanese, and German. I'm currently working on Arabic and Russian."

Hanako nods, unsure of how to continue the conversation. We continue the game, me messing around trying to do trick shots, not taking the game seriously at all, her taking a very long time to plan her shots. I swear she's doing geometry in her head as she lines up the shots. I pay very close attention to her when she happens to be on the same side of the table as me to make a shot, since I have to take a couple steps back to give her room. And she's wearing black skinny jeans. And she has to bend over to make the shot. Yeah.

But in all seriousness, I feel like I've made some progress with her,opening up a bit about her past, which shows that she trusts me a little more, I think. I line up a shot, but fuck it up at the last second, causing the ball to smash into the eight ball, the last one I wanted to hit, and sink it into a hole. As this happens I give out an anguished cry of defeat, having to endure the pain of watching my own demise. I bury my face in my hands and give a sad moan, switching back to Japanese. "God dammit, I guess that's game, gg… Ah shit, it's getting late, we should head back before the trains close, there's no way I'll be able to justify buying a hotel room for you."

Hanako smiles at me and she starts rolling the rest of the balls still on the table into the pockets. I take her cue and put both of them on the racks. As I do, I hear a voice behind me, or rather, three voices that I don't recognize, walking into the alcove. "Don't think ahm gonna be too good a' pool or wha'ever bu' le- oh hey pretty lady, didn't see ya there." I turn my head and see three guys around my age entering the area, all of them wasted. "Wouldja care for a game a' pool, milady?" One of them asks of Hanako.

"U-Um, uh, I, I don't, s-sorry…" She's frozen in place, just about surrounded by these dudes who haven't noticed me yet, stuck between the pool table and them, too terrified to move.

"Ah come on baby, jus' one ga- woah, the fuck happened to yer face!" One guy steps up to her and despite her trying desperately to cover her scars, they're all too visible.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" I cross the distance between myself and them as quickly as I can, placing a hand on one of the guys' shoulders.

All of them look at me, "Who's this pirate-looking dude? You wanna take yer hand off there?"

"I'll remove my hand once you step back from this lovely young lady here." I'm very irritated right now and honestly I'm ready to fight these dudes, but I'd rather not. Three on one is horrible odds even when I have about four inches and fifty pounds on all of them.

The guy that was hitting on Hanako steps closer to me, "Hey man, we're just tryin' to have a little fun." His voice has a metric fuckton of aggression in it.

I look at him coldly, almost sneering, "Hey man, we're just trying to _leave,_ so please step aside." I start squeezing the guy's shoulder that I'm still holding, making him go "Ah, hey, hey!"

"Who the hell you think you are, motherfucker? Some gaijin baka thinking you can just come here an' fuck _our _women? Fuck you dude!"

I've about had it with this guy, the male part of my brain starts taking over, "Watashi wa gaijin heishi, _kono baka_, damare, or I will fuck you up!"

Hanako places a hand on the shoulder of the guy who's yelling at me, "P-Please sto-"

"Get off me, bitch!" The guy brings his hand up and backhands her across the face, sending her to the floor.

I snap.

No one, absolutely fucking no one, harms people I care about. That's my one rule, you can do what you want to me, but if you even think about harming someone that I love, I may just kill you. I let go of the other guy's shoulder and while the asshat that just hit Hanako is turned to the side, I shoot forward and my hand wraps around his throat. I then slam his head into the edge of the pool table, and as his head bounces off of it, I land a punch right on his cheek, slamming him into the table again. I aim a couple more strikes his way but then a searing pain envelops my head as one of the guys smashes a beer bottle on it. Stars fill my now-red vision and I'm knocked to the side and staggered, then the third guy grabs me from behind and pins me to the table, then throws me to the ground, staying on top of me. He lets go of me for a moment to try and punch the back of my head but I use the shift in weight to buck a little and flip myself around. I'm met with a flurry of punches to my face, only a few of which I successfully block. While I'm holding my hands up to protect my face I can just barely see one of the guys trying to step up to my side.

I buck once more and throw off the weight of the guy on top of me, then I give the guy still standing a good kick, luckily I strike him right in the dick, so he backs off and collapses, crying out in pain. I then grab the guy on top of me and roll over, so that I'm now on top of him. I use what combatives training I have to work my way inside his arms, he's flailing around, so I pull my body close to his, bringing one arm behind his neck and the other across his throat, pressing in so that I cut off his circulation. My face is right next to his, and I feel his spit on my neck and back as he tries to free himself. After about ten seconds of struggling he passes out and goes limp.

I push myself off him and suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my right shoulder that makes me cry out in pain. I think at this point the only thing keeping me going is pure rage and adrenaline. I turn and see the guy I kicked holding the sharp end of the bottle he smashed on my head, he's plunging it into my shoulder as he's on his knees, his other hand holding his crotch from the pain. I bring my arm around and give him an elbow strike to his jaw, and I feel a popping sensation as my elbow is dislocated. The strike to the guy's jaw was just enough to knock him out, and now I'm sitting there, panting heavily, blood trickling down my face from the bottle and punches to my head. I look around, all three guys are unconscious. Hanako is sitting where she fell, staring at me in fear. I start crawling towards her.

"Hanako, are you ok?" I get to her, she shies away slightly as I get close. I don't realize that my face is an angry snarl. She doesn't say anything, just looks at me, eyes wide. I bring my hands to the sides of her face and hold her head roughly in my hands, my touch making her jump. There's a small trickle of blood coming from a fresh bruise where she was struck. "ARE YOU OK!?" I almost yell at her, tears starting to form in my eye. She nods slightly, blinking away her own tears, and I pull her into an embrace for a moment. I let her go and we get up, and it's only now that I realize that my eyepatch fell off during the fight. I pick it up and put it back on as two security personnel run around the corner.

They look at me, then the guys that are knocked out on the floor. "Sir, you uh, you need to leave." One of them says.

"That's what I was trying to do in the first place." I mumble as I grab my bag, slinging it over my shoulder as we walk out. The security guards ask me if I want to press charges on those guys, I decline. Hanako and I walk down the street a bit, I'm still in papa bear mode and I have my arm around her shoulders, holding her close as we make our way to the train station. My right arm is hurting pretty bad, so I have us stop in the entrance to an alley. "Hanako, I need you to do something for me." I say as I take my bag off and lean against a wall.

I roll up my right sleeve and look at my arm, my olecranon (the head of the ulna, which forms part of the elbow) is jutting out of place. "Ok, I need you to grab my wrist and pull." I look at Hanako, she's staring at the Reverse US Flag tattoo on my shoulder, but then she looks at me and nods. She grabs my wrist and starts pulling. "More… A little more, gently…" It hurts a lot and I start grimacing, and after a few seconds, my elbow gets pulled back into place with a nice _shok _sound. As soon as it does, the pain goes away and I breathe a sigh of relief. Next, I dig through my bag until I find a band-aid, and I place it on Hanako's face. "There, that's all you need, you're a strong girl." I smile at her, and she smiles back. "But, I'll need you to clean me up." I grab some kerlix out of my bag and wet it down with some water, and hand it to her. She starts wiping my face off, and after a minute, it's good enough for her. Now comes the hard part, I turn around, facing my back to her.

"Is there blood?" I ask.

"Y-Yes."

"Dammit, alright…" My shirt is a little ripped up, so I pull it up and expose my back, "Can you check to see if there's any glass stuck in there?" I wait, there's no response for a good thirty seconds. I'm about to turn to look at her, but then I feel a hand on my back, making me jolt a bit.

"You… You're n-not bleeding but… Your back… It's…" Hanako removes her hand from my back.

"What are you… Oh… Oh yeah… I'll tell you about that in a bit." I put my shirt back on and we keep making our way to the station. We make it onto the train and are sitting while the darkened countryside flies by us. I finally decide to tell my story. "So, a little over a year ago, maybe two now, I was working for my local fire department. One day when I was on shift we got called to a house fire, late at night, and when we showed up, there was a man and a woman outside, saying that their daughter was still inside the house. At that point the house was showing smoke but we couldn't see any flames. Myself and another guy on our crew went in as primary search to try and find the girl, the parents said she was in her bedroom upstairs. We get in and go upstairs, and find her pretty quickly. She was on the floor in her room, passed out from the smoke. I grab her and hold her, she was probably five or six, and we start making our way out into the hall again.

"My buddy gets out of the room, but apparently her bedroom was right above the fire room, because I fell through the floor and into the fire… And uh, that's when I knew that God loves me, heheheh, because I happened to fall on a couch instead of like the floor or something. I roll off the couch, and I'm surrounded by fire. I'm miraculously still holding the girl, and I find the door out of the room and start heading out. It was so hot, I felt like the fire was following me, like it was spreading and chasing me as I crawled through the house, I could feel the heat on my back even through my gear. It started burning as I finally found the front door, after maybe five minutes of looking. I stand up and stagger outside. The whole time I've just got one thought going through my head: 'I have to save her.' I just repeated it over and over.

"I know it sounds stupid and cliche but I believe I was put on this earth to help people, and save them, and that's what I do best, I think. Anyways, I get outside and start walking towards the ambulance. A bunch of my crew start running towards me and they hose me down, and at first I was like, 'What the fuck?' But then I realized that the fire wasn't chasing me while I was in the house, it was on me. It was burning through my gear since I fell into the room, by the time I was hosed off it had worked through my clothes and was burning my skin. I was holding onto that girl so tight I accidentally cracked a couple of her ribs, my arms had cramped up, and once they sprayed me down they had to pry my hands apart.

"They got both of us to the hospital and I spent a couple months in the burn unit, had to lay on my stomach all the time, I'm sure you know what that's like…" Hanako doesn't reply or respond, she just stares at her feet, a thoughtful look on her face. She stays silent during the entire trip back to the school. I say goodnight to her and head to bed once we get back on campus.

**Author's Note: This is a work in progress, I will try to update and post new chapters as quickly as possible. If you notice any inconsistencies, please let me know in a review. Thank you for your patience.**


	3. Chapter 3

Days went by, Hanako didn't show up for class on the first day after the weekend. Or the day after that. On the third day I went to her room after classes with a plate of food and a handful of papers for her coursework that she missed. I knocked on her door and waited. After almost a minute, when I was about to leave the stuff there and go, I heard shuffling footsteps on the other side of the door, and it opened, just a crack, and I saw a sliver of her frame as she looked at me. She didn't look haggard or dirty, and I noticed that her hair was wet, suggesting she had recently taken a shower, which was good, at least she was taking care of herself.

The biggest thing I noticed at first was her expression. It was sad, very sad, like the face of someone who just got done crying and composed themselves just enough to talk to you, but she didn't look like she had been crying. She looked at me expectantly, but blankly, like she was waiting for some solicitor to get on with their spiel so she can tell them to fuck off. "Hey… You doing alright?" I asked her.

She nodded wordlessly. I held up the food and papers, and she took them, looking at each of them in turn. I gave her a smile and a thumbs up and said, "I'm here if you need anything, just let me know, ok?"

Once again, she nodded wordlessly, but she flashed a half-hearted smile of her own before closing the door. I would repeat this process daily, checking up on her once or twice a day. After about a week and a half, two days after her birthday, Hanako starts coming back to class, about the same as usual, and around 2300 hours one night, I get a call from a number I don't recognize.

"Hello?" I answer it after contemplating whether or not I should for a moment.

"Hello, Jacob." It's Lilly. "How are things going?"

"Alright, I guess, nothing too exciting has happened. The school didn't burn down or anything."

Lilly giggles, "Shame… How is Hanako doing?"

"She's doing alright. I think. She did kinda what you said, so I just brought her some food and her work every day, she's back to, uh, normal now… What is she normally like during that time?"

"Hmm… Last year, she would seclude herself in her room, but if I came by to talk or give her coursework, she'd be pretty normal, she even asked to play chess once or twice."

"Huh, maybe it's just me then."

"Did something happen?"

"No- Well, kinda. I wanted to take her and Hisao out to the city to have some fun, they seemed pretty bummed that you were gone. Anyways, Hisao had stuff to do, but Hanako went with me, and we walked around the city, then we went into a club and played pool for a bit. But as we were leaving, some assholes showed up and started harassing Hanako, and uh… I fought them."

"Oh my! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I won, somehow. They fucked me up pretty bad though, and afterwards I had Hanako patch me up a bit, and she saw the scars on my back."

"Scars? What scars?"

"Oh yeah, um… I uh, have burn scars all over my back, like hers, from when I was in a fire a couple years ago."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, I don't know what her reaction was to that, she hasn't said anything to me since."

"Alright… I'll try ago call her later and talk with her."

"Ok, and if I did something wrong, tell her I'm sorry."

"I will. Oh, sorry Jacob, I have to go now."

"That's fine, it's getting late here so… Have a good night, or morning, or whatever time it is there."

"Have a good night, Jacob."

*click*

…

The next morning I wake up a few minutes before my alarm is supposed to go off, so I take a minute to check my email before I head out to run. I notice an email from one of my buddies in the army.

_From: SPC Cambron ( )_

_To: SPC Roberts ( )_

_Subject: Iraq Video_

_Message: Ay bud, just got around to chopping this down so that it's not an hour and a half of bullshit. It's pretty dope, but I get it if you don't wanna watch all of it. Talk at ya later._

_-Attachment: Video_

I click on the video and it starts playing. It's only about five minutes long, so I watch the whole thing before I head to the track field to work out. I save the video onto my computer and forward itl to my phone's email address. Once I reach the track I head to the field shed and grab some kettlebells and other weighted objects to do an improv strength exercise instead of running.

While I'm doing my exercises, the half dozen highly motivated track kids start showing up and doing their own workouts, either distance running or sprints. The human spirit never ceases to amaze me, all these kids deciding to be track stars when most other people in their situation would just lie down and quit. I'm working on some overhead presses when I hear the now familiar clacking of Emi's running prosthetics as she sprints past me.

I swear she just sprinted the last two laps, from what I've seen she pushes herself more than any other kid in this school, at least physically. There was one time where she was trying to get some food from the cafeteria on a shelf that was just barely too high for her, and I offered to grab the item for her, but she almost bit my face off and told me she had it. She seems to hate the idea that she needs help with anything, wanting to fix her problems by herself, and I'm sure that due to her injuries and general attitude towards life, she hates the idea that there's anything she can't do. It's not a bad mindset to have, it allows you to-

"HYAAA!"

I turn as I hear her screech behind me, and see her collapse as a part of her running leg snaps and flies off. She tumbles to a halt, dazed and confused as she sits up. I run over to her, "You good?"

"Yeah, I just tripped. I'm fine." She says quietly, almost forlornly. It's weird, she's normally more boisterous than this. She looks dejectedly at her broken leg and scratched up arms.

I reach out to pick her up, "Here, let me help-"

"I said I'm fine!" She yells at me, swiping my hand away roughly. "I just messed up, I just need to…" she tries to get up herself, but quickly loses her balance and collapses again.

I crouch in front of her, and notice tear drops on the ground, and streaks running down her cheeks. She has on a strained poker face, looking down at the ground. A couple other kids that are running slow down and approach, "Emi, are you-"

"She's fine, keep going." I wave them off.

"But I-"

"Leave. Now!" I glare at them. They pause for a moment, then keep running.

I lay down on my stomach and scoot forward so that she has no choice but to look at me. I start talking quietly. "You wanna hear a story..? I have a buddy who lost one of his feet to a mine in Iraq. That was about seven months ago now. He's _just now _starting to stand again, just stand, not walk or anything. You lost both of your legs and it only took you _two months _to walk, and only one more to start running again. That is unheard of in the physical rehab community.

"On top of that, I looked at your times from your last meet. Your times are within the top 5% worldwide for your age, whether or not they have a disability. You are an amazing young woman, but you don't need to kill your self to prove a point."

"I'm not doing this for anyone else, I'm doing it for… For him. You wouldn't understand."

"No, I don't, and I hope I never understand, but he's not gone, Emi."

Emi finally makes an effort to actually look at me, "You- How do you..?"

"I know, I know what happened. Your dad's not gone, Emi, he's with you all the time."

"I know…"

"He's right beside you cheering you on, every day, he sees everything you do, all your struggles, your failures, your accomplishments, and he is proud. He is _so _proud of you and he still loves you no matter how many times you fall down," Tears are now flowing from her eyes, she's trying so hard not to start sobbing. "He's right there to help you pick yourself back up because he knows how strong and talented you are. But it's ok to ask for help. All these people around you would be more than willing to help you out when you need it. Being stubborn isn't necessarily a bad thing, just don't overdo it, ok?"

Emi sniffs and nods, wiping tears from her eyes, "I know, ok? I get it, I just don't want people thinking I'm weak. 'Cause I'm not." I help her up and she uses me as a crutch as I take her to the nurse to get looked at, and get a new prosthetic. I know it'll take a lot more than a little pep talk to get Emi to change, but I hope I've gotten her thinking about how to go about life.

…

Later on, after I spent lunch with about a dozen students wanting help with their English homework, I'm sitting in Mr. Mutou's room, just after the bell has rang. All the students are present for the first time in a week or so, and the teacher starts off the period by saying, "Alright everyone, settle down… So, now, we're going to begin section 13 of chapter 7. Mister Roberts, would you like to give the lecture on this section?"

I blink a few times in surprise. "...Me?" The class giggles. "Uh, yeah sure, I guess." I get up and make my way over to the center of the room by the projector screen. "Wish you would've told me I was gonna be doing this in the morning so I could prepare… Ok, so this section will cover hormones and the endocrine system, and how it relates to behaviors and instincts within animals… Starting off, the endocrine system is a body system found in multi-cellular organisms that distribute hormones throughout the body. Hormones are chemicals that regulate body functions and have the possibility of altering an animal's state of mind in high doses…"

…

"... In which an animal need not actually have any experience or training in the learned behavior, it is simply innate, encoded into the subconscious through genetics using hormones passed down by an animal's ancestors. Most instincts manifest through traits such as a desire to care for one's offspring, or a good sense of direction, or a specific pattern of behavior that is essential for the survival of an animal's genetic code, such as a desire to mate. HISAO!" I suddenly yell at Hisao, who was paying complete attention to me. A few students jump and he says, "Yes?"

I point at him and say, "Stand up." He does so, slowly and unsure of what's happening. "Now clench your fists and hold them to your chest." I demonstrate what I mean, and he follows suit, "What are the two hormones that create a 'good' feeling and act as painkillers?"

He opens his mouth but nothing comes out for a second, then, "D-Dopamine and… Seratonin?"

"Good. Miki!" I point at another student, one of the soccer team members who lost one of her hands several years ago, who shoots up with an enthusiastic "Hai!"

"What is… Wait, stick out your left foot." She does so. "What is the term for a way that an animal acts that is _not _innate?"

"Uh… Learned behavior?"

"Which is part of what behavior type?"

"...Nurture?"

"Yes. One more time."

"N-Nurture."

"And once more."

"Nurture."

"Alright, y'all can sit back down. What I just did was education methods, where I had you preform a task while you answered, so that later on, say, during a test, you can perform that task again and you have a higher likelihood of remembering the right answer. I also made Miki repeat the correct answer three times. If you repeat something three times you're more likely to remember it.

"So anyways, continuing with instincts and learned behavior, we love on to another behavior that deals more in the realm of psychology instead of biology, and that's this thing right here: Altruism. Altruism is, in simple terms, self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. It stems from a mix between genetic coding, increasing specific chemicals in the brain that lead to the trait becoming more prevalent in an individual, and societal ideals.

"It is most common in humans, with many major religions and ideologies promoting altruism as a good thing, but it also occurs in other mammals. For example, if a wolf sees a cub being attacked by a bear, that wolf will fight the bear, knowing it may die, so that its cub will survive and pass on its genetic coding. It also-. Yes, Misha?"

Misha, the pink haired interpreter, who had her hand raised, asks, "But how is that an in-nate benefit to the animal? If the whole purpose is to hurt the animal in order to provide a benefit to something else, that doesn't sound like a good thing, honestly, from a genetic standpoint."

"True, which is why it's mainly a learned behavior, mixed with other instincts such as paternal and maternal protection of offspring."

"Yeah, I get that, but my question is why it's beneficial to sacrifice for another. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but…"

"Uh, well it… Um, it's more of… Its kinda an individual thing… You know what? Here, let me give you a visual aid." I get on the computer with Mr. Mutou's approval and open up my email, then set up the video my buddy sent me to play on the projector.

The video starts playing, after a couple seconds of black screen, everyone is watching a helmet-cam video, there's a squad of American soldiers walking through a village in Iraq. The owner of the camera is looking down at his feet, then looks up and to his right, "No, Rob, Hange is clearly best girl." The guy with the camera, Then-Private First Class Cambron says to the guy beside him.

"Uh, Jacob, I'm not sure if it's ok to show-" Mr. Mutou starts.

"It's fine, they'll be fine." I say.

Specialist Roberts turns to respond as they walk down the main street of the village that could normally house maybe 200 people. "Nah dude, Hange is batshit crazy, she'd cut your dick off just to see what kind of scream you'd make. Mikasa is obviously the best girl."

"Hey man, don't threaten me with a good time. Besides, Mikasa is crazy too, she wouldn't let _anyone _go near Eren, he's lucky she doesn't just lock him in a sex dungeon."

"So what if she's a little protective of him? Maybe I like that in a woman." As I watch the video I'm glad it's in English and most of the students can't understand what's being said.

As Cambron, the platoon RTO, and Roberts, the medic, start another round of debate, one of the guys ahead of them, at the front of the formation, turns around. Private Second Class Antoni says, "Hey Sarn't, can you tell these two nerds to shut up about their imaginary girlfriends?"

Staff Sergeant Logan, the squad leader, looks at the two joes between him, "Shut up about your imaginary girlfriends, you two are gonna die alone." He says, everyone chuckles.

PV2 Antoni turns back around and continues *KOOM* The sound in the mic is cut off for a second as a blast causes everyone to drop when he steps on a mine, triggering an ambush.

*Kakakakaka* "Fuck! Fucki-" *popopopop* "Ambus-" *krakaka krakaka* Everyone scrambles for cover, running into and to the side of buildings as shots ring out from a building at the end of the street. After the initial chaos, the sound of shouts and gunfire dies down and becomes more sporadic. The camera follows Cambron's head movements as he returns fire from the corner of a small house. Then the camera finally picks up the screaming.

Cambron looks to the right and he looks at Antoni, still laying in the middle of the road, his leg gone just below the knee, jagged bone and strips of bloody flesh poking out as he holds his leg and screams. "AAAAAAAHHH! GAAAH! Haaah! DOC! DOC! FUCKING DOC! HELP ME, HELP ME GOD! AHHHH!"

As Cambron reloads he watches Antoni, and from the side of the screen Roberts comes sprinting up to him, crouching next to him. He puts about ten rounds in the direction of the enemy shooters, and SSG Logan can be heard yelling for everyone to cover the medic. Doc slings his weapon and opens Antoni's personal first aid kit, while Antoni continues to scream and cry and beg while clutching desperately at him, dust being kicked up as rounds land within a foot of both of them.

Roberts gets a tourniquet out and wraps it around Antoni's leg, starting to tighten it. "Hurry the fuck up, Rob!" Cambron yells at Roberts as he finishes the tourniquet.

Roberts looks up at him, still crouched over Antoni. "I'm working on i-" Roberts is cut off as his head snaps to the side and his blood sprays out, coating Antoni. Roberts slumps over, unconscious, on top of his patient. There's an audible gasp from the students watching.

Everyone who saw it starts screaming "Fuck! Doc! Fucking fuck!" Cambron gets up and sprints out to them, along with Specialist Renfo and the SSG. By the time they all get out to the two men, Roberts has regained consciousness and is picking himself up, continuing to treat Antoni.

The three healthy soldiers start dragging the wounded back to cover, but after a few feet, Cambron collapses as he too is struck by a bullet in his leg. Roberts switches roles with him, staggering to his feet and pulling Cambron onto his back. There's a strange look in Roberts's eye, there's a bit of some kind of light coming from it, and also he appears to be on autopilot, showing little emotion at all. All soldiers return fire as they drag or carry each other into cover, and Roberts works on treating everyone else, denying treatment to his eye. Once he's finished rendering aid, he simply collapses on the ground and is taken care of by his buddies, some good close ups show the hole in his face from the bullet that took his eye and part of his skull. The video ends shortly after Cambron and Renfo wrap up Roberts's wound, calling for medical evacuation. He would wake up later on his way to a military hospital, forever unable to see out of his left eye.

Once the video ends I go back to the PowerPoint slideshow and look at Misha. "That's why it's beneficial to be altruistic, at least with humans, most of whom have a set of morals guiding them. We are one of the only species that has been proven to be morally driven in many cases, instead of survival driven. The idea of saving someone, the reward of seeing another human, or even another animal, healthy, happy, and safe, is worth almost any price to some people. It's not always genetically logical, an 18 year old man with no children has no logical imperative to save the life of another guy he's not related to at all, but soldiers have been doing that since war has been a thing, but it is always morally and ethically logical to save someone else's life, even if it means giving something up… I hope that makes sense."

Everyone's staring at me, Misha only nods slightly in acknowledgement. I don't know if it was a good idea to show these kids that footage, it might hit a little too close to home for some of them, but hopefully they'll trust me a bit more now that they know I'm willing to reveal very personal things about myself. I continue my lecture until the bell rings, signaling the end of the period.

…

Three more weeks go by while Lilly is gone, same old, same old. I got into a bit of trouble showing that video, Mr. Mutou said I have to go through him first if I want to show any videos again. I spend my days hanging out with Hisao and/or Hanako during lunch, when I don't need to help Mr. Mutou with his lesson plans, and wandering around campus trying to make myself useful. I start wondering when Lilly will come back, and I try to call her every couple of days just to see how she's doing.

I notice that I miss her, it's a weird sensation since I had only known her for a few weeks before she left, but I can tell her presence had an impact on Hanako, and Hisao, to a lesser extent. When she was in the tea room with us during lunch, though she didn't always talk a lot or participate in whatever activity we were doing at the time, she had a friendly, calming presence. On top of that, I will admit that she's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, with an almost perfect combination of Japanese and European traits.

It's now late afternoon, I'm walking back to the dorms after finishing a ten mile run, I'm prepping for a marathon later in the year. I'm almost inside the building, in the small plaza between the two dorms, when my legs lock up and I faceplant into the ground. I was already panting from the exertion, now I'm practically sucking down air as I gasp from the pain in my cramped up legs. I sit up and do my best to stretch them out, eyes shut, grimacing and hissing through my teeth, waiting for the intense pain to stop.

Maybe I shouldn't have drank that soda with lunch. Maybe I'll just wait until the cramps stop and see if the nurse is still in, try to get some hydration salts or an IV. "Excuse me, are you alright?" I suddenly hear a female voice to my side.

I turn my head and look, and standing just a few feet away from me is Lilly. "Lilly! Uh, hey! Hah, when did, ghk! When did you get back?"

"Oh, Jacob, hello! I got back to the school about half an hour ago, I was just going down into the town to eat dinner… Once again, are you alright? You sound like you're in pain."

"Ah, yeah, I just got done running, my legs cramped up. Hey uh, do you mind waiting for a bit? I can take a shower real quick and go with you, if you don't mind."

"I wouldn't mind at all, as long as you don't mind me waiting in your room while you shower."

"Uh… Y-Yeah, sure."

Lilly smiles, "Don't worry, I won't peek."

I laugh, "Good, I was gonna say, if I catch you peeking then I'll have full rights to peek on you."

...I probably shouldn't have said that, I see her expression waver a bit as she decides whether or not I was joking. "Well… I…"

"Shit, I'm sorry, that was unprofessional. Let's go." I decide to apologize, I pick myself up and lead the way to my room. "...Please excuse any smell and/or mess you may encounter. I was planning on doing laundry tomorrow."

"That's quite alright, your sweat isn't the worst thing in the world."

We enter my room and Lilly finds the chair by my desk while I grab some clothes to change into. I start taking off my now-damp t-shirt and shorts, then stop, "Uh…" I realize that I'm stripping down right in front of her, she's facing me, eyes closed and her usual neutral expression on her face. Conflicting thoughts run through my head.

I shouldn't be just casually changing in front of a girl like her, let alone a student. But then again she can't see so there's no risk of me exposing myself unless she touches me. Though also she might feel offended that I'm taking advantage of her blindness like this. Then again she doesn't seem to be the kind to feel insulted at little stuff like that.

But you know what, fuck it. I grab my clean clothes and take them into my bathroom to finish undressing. "I take quick showers, it won't be too long." I say before I close the door, she nods. I turn the shower on and get in once the water temperature is where I want it, feeling the relaxing sensation of the water rinsing the sweat and dirt from my skin. After that I get some shampoo and scrub my hair, then rinse that as well.

From the fatigue of the run and the warmth of the water I start feeling pretty tired, I lean my head against the wall of my shower and close my eyes for a moment, feeling the water hit my chest. I then hear a knock on the bathroom door, and can barely make out Lilly's voice from the other side, asking if she can come in. I tell her she can, my eyes still closed, back against the wall. I hear the door open and close, then nothing for a moment. Suddenly the water stops hitting me and I feel a pair of lips touch mine, and a hand on my stomach. The lips part mine and I begin a tongue duel as the hand trails down my abdomen and reaches my-

I snap my eyes open as my head bobs down and wakes me back up. I'm all alone in the shower, sadly. I finish washing myself and get out, checking my watch as I put my clothes on, I was only in there for 12 minutes, not too long. I can't bring myself to look at Lilly for a bit once I leave the bathroom, on account of the fantasy I just had.

…

Lilly and I walk down the hill, talking about how school has been going in her absence, once in town we enter some nondescript cafe, and are greeted with a "Welcome!" And overzealous bow from the hostess, who just so happens to be Yuuko, who is also the librarian at Yamaku. "Thank you for choosing the Shang...hai…" once she finishes her bow she realizes who we are and freezes, probably embarrassed that two people from school know that she works here, or maybe it's just me. I've talked with Yuuko a couple times, she's very nice and helpful, and she takes her work seriously, though she is a bit of a perfectionist and worry wart.

"Hey Yuuko, table for two please." I say with a smile.

"Y-Yes, of course! Right this way." She leads the way to a table in the empty restaurant. I look around and quickly note that Lilly and I are the only customers, but that makes sense, it's just past seven at night right now. Once we're seated, Yuuko hands me a menu, and tells us she'll be right back, walking away with short choppy steps on account of the kimono, or yukata, or whatever it is, restricting her movement. While she's gone I glance over the menu, it's mainly tea and coffee, with a few breakfast items, sandwiches, and desserts thrown in.

I glance at Lilly, who is sitting with her hands poised on the table. "Want me to read you the menu?" I offer.

"No, thank you. I know what I want, I come here quite often."

"Oh. Alright then." I continue pursuing the menu, then decide on a meal. Yuuko comes back with two glasses of water. She sets them in front of Lilly and me, then asks if we're ready to order. Lilly orders an Earl Grey tea and a club sandwich. While she's ordering I down the water, and then order a Ginseng tea and a ham and cheese, as well as a refill for my water. While we order, Yuuko leans in slightly, focusing on what we're saying like it's the key to eternal happiness.

Once we order Yuuko goes to prepare our tea and give the kitchen our orders.

I start up conversation, "I'm glad to hear that your aunt is doing well."

"Mhm, my family is thankful for your prayers, by the way."

"No problem… How was Scotland, anyways?"

"It was… Honestly, a little boring. We spent a lot of time at the hospital, in the event that my aunt didn't make it. For the same reason, we couldn't do a lot of traveling, so when we weren't at the hospital, we were staying at my parents' house. It was nice to…" Yuuko comes over and sets our tea down, bowing as she leaves again. "To see my family again, it's been quite a while.

"Sadly there wasn't much for me to do at the house. My mother was busy with work much of the time, and my father talked more with his brother-in-law than anyone else, though that was mainly yelling. But, I digress, I read a lot, and would swim with Akira."

"Oh yeah, I remember you saying that there's a pool at the house."

"Mhm, it was nice, even though I'm a horrible swimmer."

"Really? Do you not like swimming?"

"No, it… Scares me, not knowing where I'm going or how far I am from shore, or if I'm submerged in the water and can't tell which way is up… It's just not fun."

"Hmm, makes sense. I'm not the best swimmer myself, and I hate not being able to feel the bottom of a pool or lake or whatever, makes me anxious..."

The whole time we're talking I'm looking at Lilly, smiling to myself as I realize that this is pretty close to a date. I watch her movements while she takes a drink, slow, smooth, methodical, practiced. I examine her blonde hair, tied into a ponytail with her signature black ribbon. She's wearing some casual clothes, a beige shoulderless sweatshirt that shows the straps of her black undershirt. She also has on a light tan skirt that goes down just below her knees, and see-through leggings.

I spend a lot of time looking at her face. Her Japanese features clash with her hair and stunning blue eyes. I feel a sense of guilty pleasure knowing that the fact that she's blind is the only reason I can examine her beauty in such detail. I don't know what it is about her, but I may have just fallen in love with her.

Conversation dies down for a moment after my last comment and I simply look at her, and I chuckle at myself thinking about being in love with her. "What is it?" She asks, hearing my snicker.

"Hm? Oh uh, noth- uh, nothing." Our food arrives and we eat. During the meal I keep watching her, I know it's creepy but I'm just about enraptured by her. Every movement of hers is delicate and planned, she has little ways of doing things, such as tracing the outline of the bread on her sandwich with her finger, that seems cute to me rather than odd.

While we eat I notice the small silver cross hanging on her neck, and once we've finished eating, paid (I insisted that pay for everything like the gentleman I am), and are on our way back to the school, I ask her, "Lilly, I noticed the cross that you wear, are you Christian?"

"Yes, I am. I'm Catholic. My parents are as well, and sent me to an all girls Catholic school when I was younger, right after they moved to Scotland. I'll admit I'm not the most avid churchgoer, but I do take time to pray or read Scripture every now and then."

"Hmm, nice. I'm a pretty devout man myself." She's a Christian too? There's another check mark on the list. We finally get back to the dorms, "Well, nice to see you're back safe and sound. Sorry for kinda inviting myself along to eat with you."

"Oh it's no problem, you're an excellent person to talk to. I enjoyed sharing a meal with you, it reminded me of before I left, and it was a welcome… Um, welcome." We both chuckle.

"Oh good, you know, if you want to have dinner again sometime, let me know." I just spoke without thinking.

Lilly brings a hand to her mouth and giggles. "Oh my, you'd like to take me out to dinner again? How bold of you."

My face starts burning, she got me good "Oh, uh, w-well I, I mean I could, but uh, you know, I don't think it would- Oh, d-don't get me wrong, you're very pretty and I wouldn't mind, um, maybe if you were-"

She stops me with a hand on my arm, she has a very sweet smile on despite her own blushing, "I understand, I was only teasing you. I'll see if Hanako and Hisao would like to join us next time. Have a good night, Jacob."

"Oh, y-yeah, good night." I reply. Dammit, I look like a doofus.

We both walk back to our respective buildings, Lilly stops and turns after a few paces, "Oh, Jacob?"

"Yeah?" I stop too.

"We have a long weekend coming up, yes?"

"I uh… Yeah, I think in a couple weeks."

"Alright, I'm planning a little trip during that time, I'll talk about it more tomorrow."

I give her a thumbs up, then shake my head at myself for being a dumbass. "Alright, that works, see you tomorrow."

"See you."

…

Two weeks go by of more classes, lectures, study halls, and hangout sessions. We find out that Lilly's trip is basically a weekend getaway to a summerhouse up in Hokkaido that her family owns. We all agree that it would be a good opportunity to relax and unwind, since midterm exams will have just ended by the time we leave.

Now I'm standing on a train platform at five in the morning with Lilly, Hanako, and Hisao. They all look pretty haggard, not being used to waking up early enough to get here like I am, especially Lilly, who, I heard from Hanako, is not a morning person at all. I smile as I think, not for the first time, how nice it is that this little group of friends let me into their fold, being not only a senior and teacher, but a foreigner. We wait for the train, which is about five minutes late now, I walk down the platform while everyone else sits on a bench, trying to rest without completely falling asleep. Lilly seems to be regretting that her tapping cane isn't sturdy enough to support her, trying to lean her head on it without it collapsing.

I stop about thirty feet away from them and examine a map of the train system, not looking for anything in particular, just memorizing the routes out of sheer boredom. After a minute Hisao joins me. "Have a good nap?" I joke.

"Nah, if I stay sitting down I'll just completely fall asleep."

"True, can't risk plopping your head into Hanako's lap, she'll freak out and then you'll lose your chance to ask her out." I smile

His face turns red, "Wai- Hold up, I never said-"

I chuckle, "I'm just fuckin with ya, calm down. But I have noticed the way you look at her."

"Yeah, it's the same way you look at Lilly." He retorts, this time we both chuckle.

"But really, Hisao, I've learned from my experiences that life is too short not to take risks, at least when it comes to your happiness, so I say go for it. I can't tell you whether or not she's into you as well, but you won't know either until you try it." Hisao nods seriously as I talk, thinking. "But with Hanako, I'm sure you know this, but don't try to jump in head first, ease into it. If you go too fast she'll-"

"She'll have to go do something." Hisao finishes. We both laugh a little louder, Hisao was referring to the first time he met Hanako in the library, he tried to introduce himself but she got scared and ran out, saying "Ivegottogodosomething!"

The train finally arrives and we board it, seating ourselves near the back, while the other half-dozen passengers all seated themselves closer to the front. I sit on one side of the aisle with Hisao, while the girls sit on the other side. The girls pull out books and start reading, Hisao leans against the window to try and sleep a little more, and I pull out my iPod and listen to music to try and make the three hour train ride go by faster.

About an hour into the ride, my music suddenly stops. I look at my iPod and realize that I forgot to charge it last night. I stow it and lean my head back, then look at everyone else. Hisao is fast asleep, the girls are still reading. _War and Peace_ and _A Tale of Two Cities_, huh? I haven't read either of those, so I don't comment on it, I'm sure Hisao could hold a conversation about them, he's almost as avid a reader as Hanako.

A little boy and his mom get up and start heading to the back of the train car, where the restrooms are. When they pass me the boy, maybe three or four years old, looks at me and stops, "Woah! Mister, your eyepatch looks so cool! Are you a pirate?"

His mother starts to scold him "Anki, you can't just say things like that! I'm so sorry, sir."

I chuckle, "It's fine, it's fine. I'm not a pirate, I'm a soldier." I tell the kid.

"Oh, cool!"

Hisao is up and everyone near me is listening or looking at me. "Yeah, a bad guy tried to hurt me, but all I let him have was my eye. I got people to protect. Remember: Don't let anyone tell you soldiers are bad people, all of them fight the bad guys so they can keep the people they care about safe. You gotta be a soldier too, and keep your mom safe, got it?" I point at his chest and put on a smile.

"Yeah!"

"Alright bud."

"I'm sorry to bother you sir." The mother says as they keep walking down the aisle.

"It's no problem, have a good rest of your day, ma'am." I reply.

I keep up the smile as they move farther back, tears start selling up in my eyes. "You seem to be very good with children, Jacob." Lilly remarks.

I slump over and sigh, "No, no I'm not." Everyone looks at me worriedly. "I love kids, don't get me wrong, they're pure and innocent and adorable. They just… It hurts…" My voice starts breaking, tears are streaming down my cheeks.

"Hey, Jacob, it's alright, you don't-" Hisao tries to console me.

"No, no it's not alright. You're supposed to cherish them, protect them, hold them, care for them. You're not… You're not supposed to use them as soldiers. As _bombs._"

"Jacob, you don't have to-" Lilly tries to stop me.

I can't stop. Words just keep coming out. Emotions I've buried for months come spilling out. Memories and nightmares that I can't forget flash through my head. "I _do _have to! I was the one who had to deal with it! 'Hey doc, we've got another one over here!' 'Hey doc can you save him?' I had to see it all, I had to hold a ten year old, oh wait, the _upper half _of a ten year old, telling him it'll be ok as I watch him bleed out all over my uniform and die. I had to raid a brothel, a _fucking brothel, _dude, trying to catch some taliban, and I had to go into a room and find a fucking _baby_ on the bed!"

I'm not quite yelling, but I'm getting close. "You don't do that! You just don't… They're kids! Let them be innocent! What the fuck? What the fuck is wrong with people? I… I…" I break down, sobbing into my hands. My words become wimpers of lamentation and despair.

As I sit there, hunched over, tears running down my wrists and between my fingers, I feel someone tenderly try to hug me, and at this point I don't care who they are, it could be Lilly, or Hisao, or hell, it could be Stalin and I wouldn't give a shit. I turn and latch onto them, burying my face into their warm, soft body, and I cry into their shoulder. One hand of theirs holds my back, the other strokes my head. I'm gonna assume that this person is Lilly at this point.

I cry and sob for a few more seconds then finally am able to compose myself. I remove my face from my comforter's body and see that it is in fact Lilly. "I… Sorry, um… I- I shouldn't have been…" I mumble.

"It's alright, Jacob. I can listen if you need to vent." Lilly lets go of me and returns to her seat. Hanako and Hisao are looking at me with worry, surprise, and a little pity.

I shake my head. "No, no that's… guh," I'm still wiping tears from my face like a little bitch. "I'm not supposed to be the one doing that… But, heh, I do think you're gonna make an amazing mom, Lilly." We all chuckle awkwardly.

That's the first time I can remember having any kind of breakdown like that. I thought I wasn't affected too bad by what I saw in Syria, but I guess not… The rest of the train ride goes by uneventfully, I lay my head back and manage to nap a little bit. We arrive at the station and depart, finding a taxi to take us nearer to the little summerhouse that Lilly's family owns.

…

We enter the small western style house, immediately inside there's a small living room with a futon, coffee table, TV stand with an old television and dvd player, and some shelves with random books or knick knacks on them. Connected to the living room is a kitchen with a small four person dining table. A tiny hall leads to the single bathroom, and then the bedroom with a queen sized bed. Lilly speaks up as we look around, "Well, Hanako and I will take the bed, and Hisao you can have the futon, I hope you don't mind. Jacob…" She becomes unsure of herself.

"There's only one bedroom?" Hisao asks.

"Wait, yeah, I was under the impression that we'd all be sleeping together. And that's gonna get real awkward because I sleep in my underwear." The two girls start blushing profusely. Mission accomplished. "Well Hisao, looks like you and I are gonna be getting pretty close this weekend." I smile as he looks at me, about to object. "Just kidding, get me a few blankets and a pillow, I'll sleep on the floor."

"Are you sure, Jacob?" Lilly asks.

"Well yeah, where else am I gonna sleep? Outside?" I chuckle.

"And here I thought I was at the bottom rung of the sleep location ladder." Hisao says.

Hanako and Lilly go into the bedroom to get their stuff set up. Hisao and I drop our bags by the futon. While he sits and turns on the TV to a news station, I take a look at the rooms in the house, examining the architecture and furniture from a fire inspector's and tactician's perspective, my dad kinda instilled in me an eye for detail. Almost everything is made of wood, probably from the 80's or earlier. I enter the kitchen and look around in the cabinets, no rodents or anything.

Lilly comes into the kitchen after a few minutes. "Jacob?" She asks as she enters. I hum in reply to let her know I'm here. "Oh, could you help me prepare dinner while you're here?"

"Yeah, sure." We begin preparing a simple meal with what's still in the fridge. As we cook, I make conversation. "This is actually a pretty nice little house."

"Yes, it is. It's not too dirty, is it?"

"No, it's fine. There's no dust or anything, really, and nothing seems out of place or left out. It's pretty tidy."

"Oh good, Akira often comes up here with her boyfriend to get away from the city for a bit. She said she left it neat and tidy last time, but she and I have… differing ideas of what neat and tidy is."

"Hahaha, yeah that makes sense. How long has your family owned the house?"

"For a few years. Akira and I used to live in a house in the nearby town once my parents left for Scotland, but we wanted to move to something a bit smaller and easier to maintain."

"Hmm. I was wondering, why didn't your parents take you and Akira with them to Scotland when they first went?"

"A couple reasons. The first was the cost. At the time, my father didn't make nearly as much as he does now, so it would have been much more expensive to have all of us move there." Weird, I thought it would have been a lot more expensive to have two or three houses, instead of just one in Scotland big enough to hold four people, but maybe the cost of living is a lot higher in Scotland than in Japan. Lilly continues, "Another factor was our education. Japan is fairly well known for having good education systems. So our father put us through a lot of private schools while we were younger."

I glance at Lilly while she talks, once again indulging my desire to simply take in her natural beauty. "Oh, so that's why you went to an all-girl's Catholic school." Lilly nods. "I'm glad you turned out the way you did though, I feel like most girls who come out of a school like that would be all snobby and bitchy. But you're one of the most delicious girls I know."

Lilly stops what she's doing, puts a hand up to her now beet red face, and starts giggling uncontrollably. I meant to say that she's sweet, or nice, but there was a bit of a translation error. "My my, I'm delicious? When have you gotten a chance to taste me, I wonder?"

Now it's my turn to blush. "What? No! Wait- I meant- oh no, I'm so sorry."

Lilly waves at me with her free hand, then continues to slowly and methodically cut up some vegetables. "It's fine, it's fine. I understand what you were trying to say. And thank you."

"Oh Jesus, I feel so bad now." I continue my work. "Well, I guess I can think of one thing she's got that's nice to eat." I mumble in English with a chuckle. Lilly once again stops and sets down the knife she was using, then buries her face in her hands. I look at her in horror. She's blushing more than I've ever seen anyone blush before. "No… No, please tell me you didn't understand that."

Lilly nods, still holding her hands to her face. "My father is Scottish. And I… I want to be an English teacher."

"Oh dammit, I can't win. Give me that knife, I'm gonna commit seppuku." This is probably the worst situation ever. I don't think it's possible to die from embarrassment, but I sure want to die right now.

We both start giggling and laughing from the collective embarrassment and awkwardness of the situation as Hanako enters the kitchen. "I-Is dinner ready?"

"Just about." Lilly says as we finish up and start setting the food on the table. There isn't much in the kitchen, we'll have to go get supplies when we head into town tomorrow, but this will sort of hold us for the night. Once the meager rations are placed I go into the living room to find Hisao racked out on the futon.

"Should I wake him?" Hanako asks.

I think for a second about just letting him sleep, but then I decide that he needs some food since we haven't eaten in a while and I don't know when we're gonna eat tomorrow. He's sitting on the couch with his head tilted back, mouth agape. He snorts a little as he inhales, which causes Lilly to giggle from the doorway between the kitchen and living room. "Yeah, go ahead."

Hanako gently wakes him as Lilly and I take our seats and wait. Once everyone is seated we eat, planning out our weekend. Tomorrow we're gonna go into the nearby town to get some groceries and do some other shopping. After our meal Lilly gets up and starts rummaging through the cupboards as Hanako places the dishes in the sink. Lilly comes back with a bottle of wine and a few glasses. "Wine? Again?" Hisao says as she sets the items on the table.

"I don't see the harm in it, since it's just us here." Lilly responds.

"I think you might have a problem, Lilly." I chuckle. But really, I am worried. She grew up with Akira, who supplied her alcohol for Hanako's birthday, and most likely let her drink before when they were younger, not the best role model to be honest. She may already have developed a taste for wine or other similar beverages. I'll have to keep an eye on her.

Lilly opens the bottle and pours a drink for herself, and Hanako. "Hisao, would you like some this time?" She asks.

"I don't think…" He looks at me, I nod. One or two glasses should be fine, he'll just be a lot more drowsy until he finally goes to sleep. "Uh, yeah, I'll take some." I know he was thinking about me being against it as a faculty member, but I'm more concerned about his heart.

"I'm good." I say before Lilly even asks, looking around at the windows and door.

"Are you sure? There's no one else out here." Lilly insists.

"Yeah, someone needs to keep an eye on you guys." The fact that we're the only ones out here is why I don't want to drink. I don't consider myself paranoid, but I like to always be prepared to defend myself or others around me against potential threats. I'm not expecting robbers to break in, but you never know.

Everyone but me drinks the wine, and just like before they're quickly inebriated. A few hours pass as I watch the students get drunker and drunker, going through two and a half bottles in about three hours. Later on in the night, everyone is giddy and bubbly and giggling at everything, even Hanako.

"...And she thought it would be a good idea to tackle me into the pool. I didn't know the pool was right there, so once I finally surfaced I started flailing around! 'Help me, Help!'" Lilly's voice becomes even more high pitched and dramatic as she tells us a story of when she was in Scotland. She begins waving her arms around in a mimicry of drowning, accidentally knocking over her empty glass in the process, breaking it. The story, as well as the spill, sends Hisao and Hanako over the edge with their laughter, they've barely been able to breathe for the last ten minutes.

Hisao almost falls out of his chair howling in laughter, and Hanako slams her head and arms on the table, her whole body shaking as she snickers, trying to contain her laughter. "Alright, I think it's about time to go to bed." I say, getting up to help everyone to their respective beds.

"Aw, fine then. Let me just pick up-" Lilly reaches toward the pieces of glass.

"No, no no, I'll get it, I don't want you to cut yourself." I lean across the table and grab her wrist, halting her motion. She gives a groan of displeasure but stops. "Alright, Hisao, you first." I help Hisao to his feet and lead him into the living room and onto the futon. "There you go, sleep tight, buddy." He grumbles and rolls over, I'm pretty sure he's asleep by the time I get back into the kitchen.

Once again in the kitchen/ dining room, I see Lilly and Hanako both up. Staggering towards the door. Lilly trips on the leg of a chair and goes sprawling straight into my chest. I wrap my arms around her as her weight and momentum cause me to lose my balance and fall back onto my butt, smacking my head against the wall. I let out a cry of pain as this happens. "J-Jacob? I'm so sorry, are you ok?" Lilly asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine since you just fell for me."

You have no idea how long I've been waiting to use that pickup line.

Lilly goes even redder than she was before. "I… I don't think I can get back to my room by myself, to be honest."

"That's fine, I got you." I shift us around and pick her up, carrying her like a bride. "Hanako, grab onto my shirt." She does, holding onto my sleeve. As I stand up, Lilly lets out a cute little squeak and clutches onto my shirt where my chest is. I guess she doesn't like being picked up for the same reason she doesn't like swimming.

I start slowly walking to the bedroom, taking into account Hanako's uneven footing. About halfway to our destination I realize that with Lilly clutching me so tightly, and Hanako pressing onto my back for stability, I can feel both their chests pressing onto my body. At the same time, Lilly giggles and whispers, "You're so strong, Jacob." This all causes my face to start burning. I quicken my pace a little.

Once inside the bedroom I lay Lilly down on the bed, and leave Hanako to help her into her pajamas. I grab some blankets and a pillow from a little closet in the hallway, and lay them out on the ground in the living room. I clean up the kitchen and make sure the door and windows are locked. I check to see if my self-defense items are prepped in the event of a break-in, and I lay down to try and get some sleep.

**Author's Note: This is a work in progress, I will try to update and post new chapters as quickly as possible. If you notice any inconsistencies, please let me know in a review. Thank you for your patience.**


	4. Chapter 4

Even though I try, I don't get much sleep. The foreign environment and strange sounds keeps me up until close to two in the morning. Then all of a sudden I hear screaming, and I look up to see Antoni on the ground, reaching out to me, bleeding out as his cries for help echo through my head. I want to go help him but I can't move. My legs are paralyzed for some reason. I'm getting scared and pissed at myself. I command myself to move but I won't.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I spin around, simultaneously waking up, jolting to a sitting position. "WHAT? Wha!? Ha! Huh!?" I almost spaz out getting my bearings, completely confused as to where I am and what year it is.

Hisao takes his hand off my shoulder and quickly backs up as I awaken, "Oh crap, sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"You were mumbling in your sleep, so I decided to wake you." I hear Lilly's voice. I finally realize where I am and calm down a bit. I get my clothes on and get up. Lilly and Hanako are in the kitchen making breakfast. It's been a while since I've had a nightmare like that, I don't normally have dreams in general, let alone ones that I could call scary.

We all eat once the girls are done making the meal, everyone looking pretty groggy from their hangovers, and then head out to go shopping in the nearby town. We walk through the countryside, the plains near the farmhouse turning into a lush forest as we get about halfway to the town. We reach a spot in which the dirt and gravel road goes along the side of a steep hill.

To one side is a deep gulch, the ground at probably a 40 degree angle going down maybe two hundred feet. The road is very narrow, little more than a two-track. I'm walking beside Lilly, ahead of Hanako and Hisao, and suddenly the footsteps behind me stop. "Hisao?" I hear Hanako ask quietly.

I turn around and see Hisao, frozen in place, a hand on his chest. He's sweating a lot more than someone should be, given our slow pace. Hanako is about two feet away from him, one hand reaching towards him but stopped, she's unsure of what's going on or how to help.

I take a step towards him, "Hisao, you-" At the same time, he starts swaying to his right, towards the gulch. He takes an uneven step to steady himself, and the loose gravel gives way under his weight and he slips. "Fuck!" I lunge forward and grab onto his shirt, but all my forward momentum causes me to slip as well and I start falling with him.

I'm not sure if it's adrenaline or God or something else, but in this exact moment I swear the whole world just slows down for a second. I twist and use all my strength to throw Hisao back onto the road, barely, but because physics is a thing I'm sent tumbling down the slope. The world returns to normal speed and becomes a whirlwind around me as I fall, rolling down the gulch. I feel a sharp pain in my leg after a second and then a tree trunk approaches me out of nowhere and

I open my eyes, staring at the sky through the canopy of the forest. I'm propped against a tree, the only thing stopping me from falling the rest of the way down the hill. I roll over, my backpack is still on, miraculously, and press my hand to the part of my head that's throbbing in pain, my hand red with blood when I take it off. Shit.

I try to stand up and am met with a pain unlike anything I've ever felt before in my left leg, causing me to collapse again. I look and see that there's a stick protruding from the lateral part of my thigh. Shit. There's blood oozing from the wound, but there isn't too much on the ground, so I don't think it's too severe.

Even so, I need to get back up to the road. I drop my bag and pull a tourniquet out it, wrapping it around my leg, then tightening it, grunting from the pain and exertion. After throwing my backpack back on, I begin the slow, excruciating climb back up the hill. It's maybe 50 feet to the top where the road is, but while I'm crawling, it feels like a mile.

My hands are quickly covered with dirt, covering the blood and scratches. My clothes become dirty, and every little movement of my leg brings a new wave of agony. Once my ears stop ringing I can finally hear Lilly calling out to me. "...cob! Jacob! Jacob say something!"

"I'm goo- gah! Motherfucking bitch! I'm come, I'm coming up!" I struggle my way up, several times I slip, and slide back down the hill a few feet. If my leg wasn't going numb from the lack of blood flow then I'd probably lose my grip from the pain. This might be worse than the time I lost my eye, at least I passed out from shock that time.

Six minutes after I woke up, I'm back on the road, sweat and dirt and blood all mixing together on my body. I get my bag off and lie on my back, panting, mainly from the pain. Hisao is back up and seems to be fine, and everyone crowds around me as I rummage through my bag looking for some bandages and gauze. "Oh shit, what do you need us to do, Jacob?" Hisao says as he sees my wound on my leg.

"I need you to back the fuck up, and settle down before you kill yourself." I growl at him. I get everything I need from my bag and look at my leg. "I'm gonna rip this fucker out... Ok, ok… ok, hoo boy this is gonna be a bitch."

I hover my hand by the stick, my heart pounding in anticipation of what's about to transpire. I close my eyes and breathe deeply a couple times. Then I inhale, grab the stick, and yank.

Pain.

"GYAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAHAHA! GRAAAH! Hah! Ha! Hah!" Everything goes red for a second and I writhe in absolute torment, my body twitching and contorting in spasms of agony. It turns out the stick was curved slightly and scraped against the inside of my leg as it came out.

Once I finally stop screaming I take a look at the students surrounding me. Hanako and Hisao are looking at me with shock and horror, the girls are crying. I sit up and start packing gauze into my wound, cursing and growling all the while, then wrap it with a bandage. I take a couple painkillers and antibiotics. "Ok, ok I think I'll be good now."

"Jacob, we need to go to the hospital." Lilly says.

"No, I'm fine, I'm not gonna bleed out now, and I'm not gonna waste your trip in a hos-"

"YOU RIPPED A DAMN STICK OUT OF YOUR LEG!" Lilly screams at me, tears streaming down her face.

I stop, I've never seen her have an outburst like that, even Hanako and Hisao are taken aback. "I… okay, let's go the rest of the way to town, I don't think it's more than a mile or two, and I'll stop in the hospital there and have them look at me, and Hisao."

"Oh… H-Hisao, what happened… to you?" Hanako looks at him worriedly.

Hisao looks uncomfortable all of a sudden, he looks away, "Uh, it was a… heart murmur or something. It happens sometimes."

We get all our things back together and start making our way to the town once more. Lilly supports me as I limp along, and Hanako walks closely with Hisao. Once we're in the town we find the local clinic and stagger inside. The triage nurse almost has a heart attack of his own when he sees us come in, me with blood covering one of my pant legs.

They rush me into the ER and remove my pants and bandage. Lilly stays with me while the other two are taken to another room to have Hisao's heart examined. The doctor removes the gauze and examines my leg. He says that I'm very lucky, the stick not only missed all major arteries and veins, but also didn't leave any bits and pieces in my leg when I pulled it out.

After looking at my leg and confirming that there's no pieces still in it, he leaves for a bit. An hour or so later, Lilly gets a call. "Hello?... Oh, Hanako… That's good, we're still waiting… Yes, we'll meet you there when we're released…"

While she's on the phone the doctor comes back in, "Well Mister, um, Roberts, like I said you're very lucky. We're going to give you some Oxycodone for the pain, and some ampicillin to prevent infection. Make sure to take one of each right after every meal until you run out. We're also gonna get you some crutches to use until you can bear weight on your foot again."

"Thanks doc." I chuckle. After hearing others say that to me so many times it's funny to hear it come out of my own mouth. Once all my stuff is gathered, and I pay for all the services rendered to me (decimating my savings account), we leave the hospital. Lilly and I meet Hanako and Hisao in a nearby cafe, and they tell us that everything's fine with Hisao now, and that they will grab groceries if Lilly wants to help me get back to the house.

I agree with that idea, since nothing else makes sense with my injuries. We part ways and Lilly and I begin the trek back to her family's house. Along the way I remember something from back in my training days when I first joined the army, having to do with my crutches, and chuckle. Lilly looks in my direction, making a slightly worried face. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing… Tink Tink."

"'Tink Tink'?"

"That's my new nickname for you. Because of your cane." As we walk there's an audible difference in sound between our footsteps and the cane or crutches on the ground. _Step, tink, step, tink, step_

"I don't quite understand."

"Ah, whatever." We continue on our way, the sky becoming cloudy as we walk, an ominous dark gray and blue wall of clouds on the horizon, signaling the oncoming storm. It starts to drizzle just as we reach the house, and once we're inside Lilly receives another call from Hanako. Apparently the rain is gonna be really bad and continuous all throughout the night, so they're gonna find somewhere to stay in town for the night.

I sit down on the futon and Lilly joins me once she's off the phone. "Is there anything you need right now?" I notice that she has a hand clenching my sleeve.

"I think I just need some rest right now."

Lilly looks at me, her expression as passive as always. And she keeps looking at me. I'm suddenly very aware of the fact that we're alone here. "You know… When I was on the plane going to Scotland, all I could think about was how much I missed my family. But while I was there, I had the same thoughts going through my head whenever I thought about you, and Hanako, and Hisao…"

I'm not too sure how to respond to that. Lilly leans forward and wraps her arms around me gently, "I'm so glad you're safe." She whispers.

"Yeah, sorry for making you wor-"

She suddenly squeezes me tightly, "Stop it! Quit apologizing for being you." Her chin is resting on my shoulder, so I can't see her face, but there's an intensity behind her voice. "I don't mind worrying about you, whenever we're apart and I wonder if you've gotten yourself hurt again, I keep that worry inside me until I hear your voice, and everything feels right again, it reminds me how much I love you."

"You-"

"Yes, I love you!" She squeezes even tighter, almost hurting me, "I love you! I love you, I love you, I love you! You make me so happy all the time and I'm sorry if you don't love me either but I just wanted to-"

She's stopped by my laugh. "I thought I made it pretty obvious, so that even you could see that I love you too. Haven't you noticed that whenever I hurt myself I'm trying to help you?" I return her hug.

"I thought, with everything you've done for Hanako, that maybe…"

"Nah, she's got Hisao." We sit there like that for a few minutes, holding each other, neither of us wanting to move.

**Lemon imminent**

"Hmm… Um, Jacob…" Lilly finally ends the embrace, she faces me, her cheeks red, "I… don't mind if we…" She fidgets with her skirt. I understand what she's trying to say.

"So, uh, should we take off our own stuff or each other's?"

"I think, I'll take off my own this time."

_This time?_ Alright then, at least there's gonna be a next time. I remove my shirt as Lilly removes hers. She then removes her skirt, and I finally get a good look at her figure. She has a very curvy body, her large breasts and hips contrasting with her waist to give her a perfect hourglass figure. She has just enough fat to be attractive, looking like she weighs maybe 140 pounds, her DD tits and ass that sticks out a good amount are very appealing, along with her thick thighs, and she has relatively skinny arms and legs. All in all, she has a "big titty onee-san" body that is near perfect in my opinion.

Once she gets her clothes off, and I finally get my new pants off, we're in our underwear and I guide Lilly to sit back down on my lap, facing me. She runs her hands along my shoulders and back, feeling my scars for the first time. I rub my hands up and down the sides of her abdomen, resting them on her hips as we press our foreheads together.

I can feel the heat coming off her body, and her breath as we both start panting, anticipation and lust taking over and making my heart hammer in my chest. Finally I can't take it any longer and I plant my mouth on hers, suctioning our faces together and launching an attack into her mouth with my tongue. I peek my eye open while we kiss and see that her eyes are half-open, and I smile inwardly.

I've noticed before that whenever Lilly is focused or distracted, her eyes will close halfway instead of being either completely shut or wide open like most people. As we make out, Lilly's hands move from my back to my neck and head, her fingers running through my dirty, tousled hair that I haven't been able to clean since I fell down the hill. Her kiss becomes more aggressive, she presses her body into mine and squeezes me tightly, grabbing what little hair I have, not letting me go.

She shifts herself forward on my lap and her pussy rubs against my dick through our underwear, sending a jolt of pleasure throughout both of our bodies. We both inhale sharply through our noses at the sensation, and the whole experience is enough to hook Lilly. She begins to rub her pussy up and down the length of my cock, wrapping her arms around my neck to stabilize herself while her breathing becomes more and more erratic. Her movements are awkward and slow, showing her inexperience in this matter, but they're filled with a passion and love that's unmistakable, as well as a deep desire to both feel and give pleasure.

After a couple minutes of her grinding against me, I break off our kiss and hold her at arm's length, "Lilly, uh, are- are you ok with…" It's hard and embarrassing to finish a statement like that out loud for some reason, no matter who you're talking to. _Hey, you ok with actually fucking?_ It just sounds weird.

Lilly looks at me with an expression overflowing with love and lust, understanding what I'm asking. If we were in an anime right now I swear she'd have heart shaped pupils. "Yes. Please." She places a hand on my chest and slides it down to my crotch, tickling my stomach and making it twitch in the process. She stops for a second when that happens, but giggles and resumes her mission once I explain that I'm just ticklish. She reaches the hem of my underwear and finds the tip of my dick, rubbing down my shaft through the fabric.

After a moment, once I've recovered from the sensation of Lilly's gentle touch on my penis, I slide my hands up from where they were resting on her thighs, up to her hips, and waist. I pull her towards me a little and my hands then find the back of her bra. After fumbling just a bit with the clasp I undo her bra, and it slides off her body, causing her voluptuous breasts to drop and sag slightly once their support is cut off. Once her bra is fully off I gaze in near awe at how perfect her chest is. Her boobs don't sag very much despite their size, and her tits are perfectly sized and just the right color, a nice, healthy, appealing pink.

I lay myself back so I'm laying down more, and I reach my hands up to begin groping her breasts. They're incredibly soft and squishy, as they should be. While I play with her tits, Lilly looks over my head with an embarrassed, but happy expression. Just like me she feels a little self-conscious about her body, but at the same time she's glad to finally show herself to the person she loves. As I squeeze and massage her breasts, I involuntarily sigh as I watch them jiggle and bounce as I shake them in my hands. "Oh, I wanna put my dick between these." I mumble in English.

Lilly giggles and her cheeks start to blush just a bit more, her face becoming slightly red as passion overtakes her. "Mmm, you naughty boy." Her doting gaze rests more accurately on me and she resumes playing with my hair. "But that'll have to wait until next time." With her hand that's still rubbing my dick, she discovers the hole that's built into the front of most men's underwear, opening it and then pulling my cock out to expose it to the outside world.

An almost funny look of wonder crosses Lilly's face as she feels what a penis is like for the first time. She rubs it and strokes it a few times, giving me a handjob, all her attention focused on it as she hangs her head down and looks at nothing, mouth slightly open. "Jacob…" She says quietly, suddenly. She shifts herself around on top of me, "I can't wait any more." She lowers herself down, her hand simultaneously holding my dick up and pushing aside her white panties, the tip of my cock kissing her pussy lips.

She pauses for just a second, making sure her angle is right or something. "Lilly, wai- gah!" I try to warn her that her first time might hurt but she sets herself down on top of me, my dick thrusting all the way into her vagina with the full force of her entire body weight to effectively break her hymen.

"AAah!" As I let out a gasp of surprise, Lilly lets out a squeal of pleasure mixed with pain as her virginal wall is torn down. Her hips twitch and her vaginal muscles squeeze my dick as she falls forward, laying on top of me, one arm around my head. I let her stay like that for a second, knowing she's gonna need a second.

"I tried to warn you, are you alright?" I ask her.

She nods her head beside mine. "I… I knew it would do that, I just didn't expect it to feel like that." After a moment she's able to start moving, she begins to ride me slowly, getting into a rhythm and not wanting to aggravate my injury. She pushes off me and places her hands on my chest as she increases her pace.

Her pussy's grip on my dick lessens a little as she continues to ride me, both of us enjoying the feeling, as well as the wet _schlik schlick schlick _sounds as my precum mixes with her juices (and a bit of blood), and slight thumping of her ass on my pelvis as she drops down onto me. After a minute of her breathing and moaning more as pleasure builds up inside her nether region, I try to thrust up to add to the impact as she lowers herself.

This turns out to be a mistake, as I end up moving my damaged muscle and I feel a bolt of pain shoot up my leg. I cry out in pain as Lilly yelps in surprise from my movement, falling forward to press her breasts against me and bury her face into the pillow next to my head. She lays there, panting, for a second before resuming her movements with her hips, pushing herself back up. "I think I just came." She says with a giggle.

"Oh, I didn't think you knew that word." I tell her.

"I'm not as innocent as you think I am." She smirks, moving her hands up my body to my neck and head, her beautiful blue eyes glazed over as she soaks in all the other sensations she's feeling. She touches my face, feeling it like she wants to egrain every detail into her memory from touch alone.

I'm getting closer and closer to my climax, I can feel the sensation rising in me. After a moment she leans back down and whispers in my ear, "Just because I'm a good little catholic girl doesn't mean I don't have fantasies." Then she gives my earlobe a playful bite. The sound of her voice sends shivers and tingles down my body, the feeling of her rapid breath in my ear makes it seem as if every time my dick enters her it pushes some air out of her lungs.

"Lilly, I, I love you." I whisper, getting close to climaxing.

"I love you too."

"I'm… getting close…" I feel so good, I want more, I want her to feel more. I clamp my hands down on her thick ass and start pushing her down onto my dick. It's so sensitive that I can feel every twitch from her pussy as she gets close to cumming again.

"Do it, cum inside me." She tells me, I start using her ass to push her down and pull her back up faster and faster.

"But you'll-"

"I won't get pregnant, fill me up."

That does it. With those words I finally release and shoot my semen inside her, my hips jerking as my body expels as much as possible. We both gasp in ecstasy as we can feel our bodily fluids mixing together. I continue fucking her until I'm sure that I've gotten everything out, then I let her lift herself off me and collapse beside me on the futon.

Lilly lays her head on my shoulder and I hold her as we lie down, panting like animals. She draws her arm across my chest and hugs me, "I love you." She says again.

"I know…" I smile, then frown as I think of something, "Hey, why can't you get pregnant?"

"Hm? What do you mean? I can get pregnant."

My heart stops for a second. "But when I- uh, you said you won't get pregnant."

"Oh, that." She giggles, "I take birth control for acne."

"Oh, oh ok, I thought you had some condition." I roll over quickly so that I'm now on top of her, aggravating my leg just a bit and making her squeak in surprise. "Nn, you scared me, you know." I reach up and pull down a blanket that was on the back of the futon, covering us.

"Sorry." Lilly says as I bury my face between her tits. She strokes my hair as I drown in the softness of her body. "... You need to take a shower in the morning." She says after a bit, we both laugh, then enjoy the sound of rain hitting the window as we both fall asleep, feeling the warmth of each other's bodies.

**Lemon over.**

…

"Gaaaah! Aaaah! Rrraaaa!" I run up to the guy on top of my buddy. I grab his collar and throw him off. I get down on top of him and pull out my bayonet. He tries to grab my arm, but I bring the knife down anyway and plunge the blade into his chest. I do it again. And again. And again. Over and over I create an ever growing hole in this haji raghead motherfucker's body.

How dare he try to kill my buddy. Blood splatters up onto my face. How dare he try to stop me. He screams in pain, I keep stabbing him, using both hands to drive the knife as deep as possible, cracking bones. The guy can barely speak, he's spitting up blood. "Jacob…" he says suddenly.

I freak out, stabbing him more. "Jacob!.." One more time.

"Jacob." I jolt awake at the sound of Lilly's voice. Sometime during the night I must have rolled off of Lilly, because now I'm on my side facing her. She has a hand on my cheek, looking worried. "Are you alright? You seemed like you were having a nightmare."

"Uh… yeah, I was. But I'm good now." Lilly looks at me for a moment, then pulls the blanket up so that it's just about completely covering her, and then she closes her eyes and falls back asleep. It's still fairly early in the morning, but I can't fall back asleep. I pull the covers up more so that we're both completely under the blanket, and I simply watch her as she sleeps, a peaceful expression on her face as she slowly breathes in and out.

I softly caress her side and legs, working my hand around to feel her butt, and then back up to her breasts. I try not to do enough to disturb her sleep. After a minute I simply rest my hand on her waist, roll onto my stomach, and close my eyes, trying once again to go back to dreamland.

I'm not sure how much time passes, but some time later I hear the door open and two sets of footprints walk into the house. For a second I start to get scared, but then I hear Hanako's voice, "Is he here?" Followed by the sound of plastic bags filled with groceries being set down on the floor.

"Yeah, he's sleeping on the couch." I also hear Hisao.

"Then w-we should- H-Hisao!" Hanako lets out a little squeak, "He might w-wake up." She whispers.

"It's ok, he sleeps like a rock unless you touch him." What? No I don't… Do I?

"Ah, b-but… mm!" Hanako starts making some interesting noises, and her breathing becomes heavy to the point where I can hear her from where I am.

"He might wake up if you're not quiet." Hisao mumbles. There's a certain playfulness and sultry tone to his voice.

I start lifting myself up very slowly so that I can just barely peek over the arm of the futon. I see Hisao and Hanako standing in the middle of the room, facing sideways to me. Hisao is right behind Hanako, holding her close to his body and groping her chest. She has one hand up holding his shoulder, both of them have their eyes closed as they focus on the lewd act they're performing.

I watch them for a second, then I say "You know, Hisao," They both freeze and look at me in horror as I speak. "When I said 'go for it', that's not what I meant."

Hisao starts to speak but can't, "Ah… U-Uh…" Hanako is petrified by embarrassment, both of them turning a deep crimson as I glare at them.

I feel a rustling beside me, and my face turns red as well as Lilly sits up with a groan beside me, "Jacob, what are you talking about?" She's still mostly asleep.

"L...L-Lilly…" Hanako stammers out Lilly's name, she and Hisao switch their gazes from me to Lilly and back several times, completely bewildered.

"Oh, Hanako, you're ba-..." Lilly faces Hanako, then freezes, her eyes slowly widening and her face burning as she realizes the situation. There's a very long, painful silence. "S-So, um, Hanako, Hisao... J-Jacob and I confessed to each other last night." Lilly finally says, trying to regain control of the situation. She lowers her body down a bit to ensure that nothing's showing.

Hisao finally removes his hands from Hanako. "I… Can see that… W-We did too."

I drop my head down onto the armrest of the futon, and start laughing. "What the fuck is going on?" I look back up at the two students still standing awkwardly in the middle of the small room. "So uh, do y'all wanna get breakfast going while we, um, get dressed?"

At my request, Hanako tears herself away from Hisao's side with a brisk nod and brings the groceries into the kitchen. Hisao follows her and they both are now out of the room. Lilly and I wash up and change clothes, and once food is ready we join the other two at the table. We have an awkward breakfast, barely talking to each other. Once we're about done, Hisao speaks up, "Hey Jacob, how are you gonna, like, have a relationship since you're a uh, teacher's aid?"

I knew someone was gonna ask that question, I just didn't expect it so soon. "Well… Don't bring it up." I chuckle, "I mean, _technically _I'm assigned to Mr. Mutou, and I'm not _technically _allowed to have relationships with a student that I'm in charge of, to prevent preferential treatment, and _technically _Lilly isn't a student under me, and she's of legal age and everything so if the school has a problem I can just feign ignorance."

Basically, it's a lie by omission. I've been hanging out with these three on a near-daily basis for a few months now and no one from the school has said anything so I'm guessing they don't mind as long as I don't get caught bending Lilly over a desk or something. Lilly speaks up, "What do you think, Hanako?"

Hanako smiles slightly, "I-It's a little weird, but if my friends are happy, t-then I'm happy." Her single visible eye switches its gaze from me and Lilly to Hisao, and she blushes a little for some reason.

Hisao glances at her and smiles as well, he must be doing something under the table. "At least you're not some random jackass, I guess. But it's not really much of my business, what makes you happy is what makes you happy."

Hm, that was… unexpected, honestly. I consider these three to be very good friends of mine, but I know that Japan is a very xenophobic country with a very traditional, tribalistic culture, not too many Japanese people are willing to actually date a foreigner. I'm sure Lilly's friends are going to be part of the minority when it comes to whether people approve of our relationship.

We go silent for a moment, Lilly decides to get up and start taking the dishes to the sink. I'm about to get up and help her, but suddenly Hanako asks, "Do… Do you approve of us?"

I look at her, and Hisao. Hanako was eight years old when quite literally everything in her life was taken from her. She spent months in a hospital where the nurses couldn't touch her for fear of giving her an infection. Then she stayed at an orphanage for most of her childhood where she was constantly bullied and made to feel worthless by other kids and the thought that no one wanted her. Then she finally came to Yamaku and met Lilly. Hisao had a fucking heart attack while he was only seventeen years old and had to go through an entire lifestyle change. They both love to read, both are a little socially awkward (well, very socially awkward in Hanako's case), neither of them are big on exercising, and they both seem like they just need someone to be there for them. "Why are you asking me?" I say, "I'm not your dad."

It takes me about a second and a half to realize what I just said and who I said it to. "I- I mean uh, you don't really need my or anyone else's approval. But you guys do seem good for one another. I don't think it's a bad decision."

"Mhm, I think you two are very cute together." Lilly returns and sits down. We keep talking about our relationships for a little bit, then move out to the living room. Today is our last day at the house, we leave early tomorrow morning, and no one has any motivation to do much. We spend most of the day playing some of the half dozen board games that are stored in a little closet, or watching the tv.

Once it gets dark outside we begin packing our few belongings and sets of clothes for the return trip back to Yamaku. The girls go into the bedroom to pack their stuff, and Hisao and I grab our bags to stuff our old clothes in. "So Hisao, how did you confess?" I ask him.

He laughs, "Well, it's a weird story. Once we split from you and Lilly, we went to the supermarket to buy groceries. Once we got out it was already pouring rain, so we looked at what the weather was going to look like, and found out that it was supposed to rain real bad all night. So we decided to find a hotel to stay in. That's when Hanako called Lilly. Then we went around town looking for a hotel or something, and there was only one with rooms open. It was a… Love hotel." I let out a snort of laughter. "Yeah, so we say screw it and rent a room. When we were getting settled in Hanako was very, _very _uncomfortable with everything going on, so I wasn't sure if I should say anything. I think she was about to freeze up from embarrassment like she did in class one time.

"I told her I was gonna go get a roll-away or some extra blankets or something so I could sleep on the floor, but she stopped me and said that she didn't mind sleeping with me. And, honestly, when she said that, I almost had another heart attack." We both laugh. "And yeah, I just came out and told her that I like her, and then she told me she likes me too, and… yeah."

"Were there condoms in the room?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Did you use any?" I smile.

"Heh, no, actually. I'm kinda scared that if I do… too much, it might cause problems, so we uh, didn't go _too _far."

"Ok, that's good. I'd love to give you advice on this issue, but I don't know enough about your condition to say what you should do. It might be awkward but you probably wanna talk to the nurse or a doctor before you do anything serious." Hisao nods. "Oh and if you hurt her… You know what I'm capable of."

Hisao chuckles, thinking I'm joking. I am, mostly, I know he's a good guy who will at least try to keep her happy, but I'm just a protective guy. We finish packing and set out blankets to go to sleep. "After last night, sleeping by myself's going to suck." He says.

I chuckle and agree with him. The girls come back into the room after a couple minutes, both in their pajamas. "Have you two finished packing?" Lilly asks.

"Yes, mom." I reply.

Lilly purses her lips as Hanako smiles, "Very well, then I do believe it's time for bed. Jacob…?" Lilly faces in my direction as Hanako moves to sit on the futon next to Hisao.

"Huh?" It takes me a second to realize what she's silently asking. "Wait, am I sleeping with you?"

She smiles, "Yes, you are."

"W-Well I'd be ok with that but I don't wanna kick Hanako out onto the couch, I'm fine out here for tonight."

"I-It's fine, Jacob." Hanako says.

"Are you sure?" I look at her and she nods timidly. "Alright then." I get up and fold the blankets I was gonna use as a bed up, and follow Lilly into the bedroom.

**More Lemon stuff**

Once inside I close the door and begin taking my outfit off. I turn and see Lilly standing by the bed, bent over at the waist and laying her head on the bed, presenting her delicious butt to me, wiggling it back and forth slightly and sliding her dark blue pajama shorts down to show more of her ass and black panties. Her intentions are obvious. "You have no idea how bad I want to do that right now," I tell her, "But I don't know if I could do it in that position given the fact that I'm limping."

Lilly heaves a disappointed sigh and crawls all the way onto the bed as I finish undressing, and she sits on one side as she pats the other, inviting me to lay down. I do so, laying on my back, only wearing my underwear now, head resting on a pillow. She feels her way to my body and rubs her hands along my chest and abdomen, feeling my shoulders and leaning in to give me a quick kiss.

After a moment of kissing, Lilly carefully straddles me and works her way down so that she's sitting above my legs. She undoes some of the buttons on her blouse, and then pulls my underwear down. After a bit of adjusting she lowers her chest down and envelopes my dick with her tits.

Her chest is incredibly soft and warm like velvet. Her breasts are kept together by the bra she still has on, as well as her pajama top, the dark blue fabric really does go well with her eyes, which are blankly staring at nothing around my navel area as she lifts herself up and down. I can see the tip of my dick poke through her tits just a little as she goes down, and all in all the whole scene is extremely erotic.

I reach out and stroke her hair as she does her work. "Is this good?" She asks, unsure if she's doing it right.

"Yeah." Is my only response. Lilly continues titfucking me for a few minutes, slowly building my climax. As my orgasm approaches, I start breathing heavier, but Lilly doesn't notice. I try to tell her to stop before I hit my peak but I can't form thoughts, let alone words. I try to hold it in but just end up shooting a stream of cum onto Lilly's chin and throat, pumping more out onto her tits, as it all dribbles down into her cleavage and on her shirt.

Lilly jumps and squeaks as I cum on her, obviously surprised. Once I'm finished she giggles, "You made a really big mess." She says in an incredibly sexy tone, "Let me clean it up."

Lilly removes her pale, cum-stained tits from my dick and instead engulfs it with her mouth. The sensation is so intense I almost yell, "Ho! Ah, Lilly, it's- it's really sensitive!"

She slowly takes my dick out of her mouth, a small string of spit mixed with semen trailing from my tip to her lips. "You can still keep going, right?" She flicks her gaze up, almost pleadingly, glancing in several directions rapidly.

"Yeah, but it'll take a while for me to- to do that again." I chuckle.

A devilish smile crosses her lips, "Hmm, well it's a good thing we've got all night then."

Oh lord, I don't know if my body can handle this. I honestly wasn't expecting Lilly of all people to be this sexual. She continues sucking my dick, slowly and amateurish, but it feels great all the same. While she sucks me off she removes her shirt and bra, once again fully revealing her ample chest. After I let her get used to the movements, I have her spin her body around so that she's on her knees over my body, so that we're 69'ing. If I look down I can see her chin and throat bobbing down as she takes my dick as far into her mouth as she can, her tits brushing my abdomen as she goes down, swaying slightly and still dripping a little semen onto my body when she goes back up.

I lay my head back and see her blue pajama bottoms, which I pull down along with her panties, revealing her beautiful pussy. I grab her thick ass and pull it down, licking her clit and clamping my mouth over her vagina, sucking on it and sticking my tongue inside the folds and into her hole. I hear her moan as I eat her out, the cries of lust muffled by my cock filling her mouth, the noise turning me on and spurring me to devour her tight pussy even more.

I spank her and play with her ass and tits as she takes my dick out of her mouth and gives me a handjob in order to get a breath of air. As she goes back down I grab a fistful of her hair with both hands and start shoving her head down and pulling it up to my own tempo. I force her to deepthroat me as fast as I can as I eat her pussy. I feel her initially resist but after a few seconds she gives in to the passion and debauchery of my actions, drooling and spitting and gagging and slobbering all over my dick as she moans from being penetrated by my tongue in her pussy and my dick in her mouth.

She slowly lowers her body so that she's basically sitting on my face, I keep eating her out, and after a few minutes I hear a high pitched squeak from her as I thrust my tongue into her and at the same shove her head down violently. When this happens I feel a very sweet yet simultaneously sour tasting liquid squirt out of her pussy and into my mouth. Eventually I'm about to cum again so I shove her head as far down as it'll go and bust a nut down her throat. I hold her there and feel her mouth and throat muscles move as she swallows my seed. Once I've ejected all I can I let go of her, she takes my dick out of her mouth and proceeds to milk everything she can out of me.

Once I'm empty Lilly gets off of me. "I… I think I need to take a bath." She says, sounding fatigued and out of breath, her few remaining clothes and hair disheveled, my still-wet cum on her chest. I have to say, this is the sexiest I've ever seen her. I offer to take a bath with her, but she rejects my offer, stating that it would make too much noise, seeing how the bathroom is right next to the living room. She puts her pajamas back on and leaves, I completely remove my underwear while she's in the bath, and lay down, physically drained. She returns a short while later and crawls into bed with me, snuggling up to me and giving me a few kisses.

"I didn't expect you to be so… aggressive." I tell her, looking at her beautiful face.

"'Aggressive'? Hehehe. I merely have a healthy adolescent sex drive."

"Oh, that's just healthy? I can't wait to see you when you're horny."

Lilly smiles and closes her eyes. "I love you." She says simply.

"I love you too, Tink Tink." I reply, before we both fall asleep next to each other.


	5. Chapter 5

We return to Yamaku the next day and begin our routine lives once again. I spend more time outside of school with Lilly, taking her on dates to restaurants and parks. We develop a sort of system where I treat her to a meal in a restaurant, and she treats me to something way better in a hotel room. We go out two or three times a week, sometimes taking Hisao and Hanako along for a double date or something.

Lilly quickly becomes the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. She's sweet and gentle and affectionate, every time that she tells me that she loves me it feels genuine, all the time I spend talking to her about the future feels hopeful. I even go so far as to start wandering through jewelry stores, looking for a ring that she might like, on the few occasions that I'm out of school and not with her. I don't plan on marrying her within the next year, but dammit I'm gonna marry her at some point.

A month and a half goes by and semester finals are approaching, and all of a sudden Lilly tells me that she can't go on any dates for a while in order to focus on studying. I reluctantly agree, offering to help her with her studies, but she says that she and Hanako can take care of it. So now I'm hanging out in Mr. Mutou's room with Hisao and his room neighbor, Kenji, assisting them with grasping some of the more difficult topics of English and Math.

"...Alright, so the next one is 36c." Hisao says.

"C… Another story problem, yay." I start to read it aloud. "Sakura is presenting her invention to a board of scientists, she claims to have made a diesel engine that only uses 50% of the fuel that other engines-"

"Pah!" Kenji suddenly scoffs. "That's absolutely ridiculous!"

"Well yeah, it's just a math problem." I say, not sure why he's making such a big deal out of this. I've talked with Kenji a couple times during my time here, and I've heard a good deal about him from Hisao. I know that he's legally blind, only being able to clearly see things if they're literally an inch from his face, and that he's in Lilly's class. Hisao has also told me that he's some kind of conspiracy nut, but in my dealings with him he seems fairly normal.

"Nah man, that's exactly what I'm saying! It's part of some kind of mental conditioning or brainwashing!"

"Oh no." I barely hear Hisao breathe these words as he facepalms, knowing full well what's about to transpire.

"That's how they get you! They start you off young!" Kenji starts raising his voice, his tone getting more aggressive.

"I'm not following, who's 'they'?" I say plainly.

"The feminists, man! You ever noticed that in all those stupid story problems, whenever someone is doing something stupid or ridiculous like buying 50 watermelons it's always a guy, but when someone does something interesting or cool it's always a chick? I've read studies on stuff like that, it's called gaslighting or imprinting or something like that. They give you this image in your head, once you're old enough to start learning, that women are smart and men are dumb. It's all part of the feminist conspiracy! Why is it that most teachers are women? Why are women always the ones making decisions in the academic industry? See, they've infiltrated every corner of society, they're trying to breed out men, that's why women make up like 52% of the population."

"I highly doubt that all the women in education are feminists." I retort, going along with his delusions.

"That's just it though, _all _women are feminists! Not all of them admit to it though, they tell you what you want to hear so you let your guard down, they're the sleeper agents, man, don't forget that!"

Holy shit, I didn't expect that from him, this dude's a legit conspiracy theorist. I'm not a huge fan of feminism myself but god damn, Kenji's on a whole 'nother level. "Alright, I'll keep my guard up. Can we get back to the work then?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, sure." Kenji reverts straight back to his usual calm, easygoing demeanor. Hisao looks at me with a face that shows an absolute tiredness from dealing with this kind of stuff multiple times before. "Just sayin', there's a war coming, we gotta be ready." Kenji mumbles before focusing back on his textbook.

…

A couple days later I'm sitting at my desk, reading a copy of the general science final test that Mr. Mutou gave me today. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go through a review of the course material for the class. I guess it's better if I do it rather than putting the students to sleep at this crucial time due to Mutou's robot tone.

I flick through the pages, skimming the questions and noting any typos for him to fix later. I jolt a little as my phone vibrates and clacks across the wooden surface of the desk. I grab it and look at who's calling me, it's Lilly. I flip my phone open and answer, "Howdy, think tink."

"Hi, Jacob."

"What're you doing right now?"

I hear Lilly give a small sigh on the other end of the line, "Just taking a little break from studying. What are you doing?"

"Same as you, kinda. Looking at a test so I can review it for the students tomorrow. Being bored out of my mind. Imagining what I'm gonna do to you once finals are over."

"Mmm, do you have any plans?"

"Well, I don't want to tell you too much, I don't wanna break your vow of celibacy."

Lilly giggles, "Too bad, I was going to swap ideas on-"

I almost jump out of my seat as there's a pounding on my door, akin to a swat team announcing their presence. "God, fucking shit! Hang on a second, Lilly." I get up and open my door.

I was expecting Kenji, here to rant about something pointless or ask for some cough medicine to help him sleep. Or maybe another faculty member who needs something urgent. I was not expecting Hanako, clothed only in her unbuttoned school blouse and panties, one hand attempting to hold it together so as not to show her chest, and the other hand pulling it down to hide her crotch.

She's panting, face flushed, a terrified look in her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. She starts speaking as soon as my door starts opening. "Jacob! I-it's H-h-h-Hisao! He s-s-started-... w-we were… he's…" She's absolutely hysterical, almost breaking down as she tries to tell me what's going on, her stuttering worse than I've ever heard it.

It takes me a full second of bewilderment to deduce what she's trying to say. Once I do, I curse and exit my room, forgetting that I'm only wearing shorts, leaving her to trail behind me as I run down the hall, stopping to grab an AED from a box on the wall as I pass it. Luckily it's an older one and the box doesn't sound an alarm when I open it, those new ones are annoying, they just create more bystanders.

I get to Hisao's room and find him naked, lying supine on the floor by his bed, clutching his chest. Even from across the room I can see that his skin is pale and sweaty. I get on my knees next to him, opening the AED and setting up the pads. "Hisao! You hear me?" I say to him.

"I'm… Ok… It's just a… hiccup." He says in between gasping breaths and groans of agony.

"Hanako, shut the door… and put some clothes on. What happened?" I place a hand on his chest, I can feel a heartbeat, it's extremely rapid and a little weak.

"W-we were… h-have… um…" Hanako is beet red as she gets her outfit together.

"I know what you were doing, I'm asking how he ended up like this."

"I uh, I tried to hard." Hisao gives a painful laugh. "Ugh, this is embarrassing."

"Hey man, I've seen more dicks in my time than I care to admit." I place the pads on his chest. "How you feeling?" I'm trying my best to sound calm but in reality my heart is pounding, probably worse than his.

"I think, I'll be okay now. It's kind of, going away. It kinda does this sometimes, then goes away after a minute." Hisao closes his eyes and does his best to control his breathing. Hanako crawls up to Hisao's head and very gingerly places a hand on the side of it, tears streaming down her face as she cries, close to sobbing, no doubt thinking that this is all her fault.

I feel for his heartbeat again after a couple minutes, it's still weak but it seems to be going back to normal, or at least as close to normal as his heart rate can be. I let out a sigh of relief, sitting back after being hunched over him, "Alright, I think you'll be ok for right now. Tomorrow morning before school, you're going to the nurse and telling him what happened."

He nods, for once complying with my directives. I take the AED pads off him and put it away. Hanako gathers her things as I help Hisao into his bed. Hanako goes over to Hisao while he's in bed and hugs him, telling him she's sorry. He does his best to console her and let her know that it's not really her fault.

I grab the AED and open the door, only to find about half a dozen other male students on the other side, whispering to each other and trying to listen into the room. "Get the fuck back to your rooms!" I yell at them, still hyped up from my adrenaline. They scatter like startled cats as they bolt back into their respective dorms. I'm not too sure how many of them noticed Hanako, the last thing she needs right now is attention and gossip. She and I part ways as I return to my room.

Once inside I close my door and collapse back into my chair. I pick up my phone and realize that the call with Lilly is still going. "Lilly?"

"Is he alright?" Her voice is filled with anxiety, she must have heard Hanako through the phone.

"Oh, Yeah. Yeah, he wasn't having an actual heart attack, he should be fine, but he's gonna go to the nurse tomorrow."

"That's good… Um, Jacob, there's something else I need to talk to you about." Lilly's voice changes from worried to serious. "Could you meet me outside?"

My blood turns to ice as I imagine all kinds of bad scenarios, "Uh, yeah, I'll be out in a minute." I put a shirt and shoes on and go outside, my brain going through all kinds of possibilities of what she wants to talk about as anxiety fills my body.

I meet Lilly outside and greet her, she begins walking in the direction of the small park on campus, speaking as we walk once we've gone a fair distance. "Jacob, I know that we've only been together for a couple months, but I've loved every minute of my time with you, but…" As she says 'but' I silently grimace as if someone is shoving a toothpick under my fingernail, knowing what's about to come next. "When I went to Scotland, my parents offered to have Akira and myself move there to live with them." We sit down on a bench. "And… I've decided that I'm going to accept their offer."

"*sigh* Dammit." I mutter as I hang my head, "When did you decide this?"

"Just the other day, I've talked with Akira, and we're going to go home once I graduate."

Fuck, that's only like two weeks away. "Well damn, now I just feel like some summer fling. Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" I'm starting to get mad. Not at her, but the situation, I'm starting to talk without thinking.

"Because I hadn't decided until recently. And _you _were the reason why it was so hard to decide, so don't get mad at me, I was just trying to keep you from feeling bad." Lilly's voice becomes defensive.

"But now I feel _worse!_ I feel used, like all those times you told me that you love me were lies."

"They weren't lies!" Lilly says, our voices are increasing in volume, I can see her eyes shining with the onset of tears in the pale light of the street lamps. "I love you, I really do love you, but my family is important to me, and-"

"I understand that, and I want you to be with your family… I just want to be a part of it too."

"Jaco-"

"I'm tired, Lilly. I'm sick and tired of being alone." I get off the bench and crouch down in front of her, it's getting hard to see her beautiful face from the tears welling up in my own eyes. "I'm begging you, I'm asking you now to please let me be with you. You're the only thing that keeps me sane, I have nightmares every night and knowing that you're there-"

Lilly suddenly grabs my head and pulls me into her body, smothering me, "Shut up! Just shut up and let me talk you idiot!" She makes a noise that is either a laugh or cry, I can't really tell. "I want this to work. I want to love you every day and be with you. If you just stop and calm down for a minute, we can talk about this and figure it out. I'm just leaving for a little while, we don't need to break up or anything."

I turn my head so I can breathe again and wrap my arms around her. "I don't want you to go." I say quietly.

"I'm not going anywhere." Lilly says as she strokes my head.

I soak in her warmth and calm myself down for a couple minutes. "I'm sorry." I finally say.

Lilly giggles, "You're such a child sometimes."

Our awkward position is starting to get uncomfortable, so I get up and hold Lilly's hand as we walk back to the dorms. "Well, I can't help it if you spoil me all the time." We both smile, walking in silence until we arrive at the dorms. I hug Lilly, reiterating that I love her. She returns the favor, and we separate, returning to our rooms.

…

I don't get a whole lot of good sleep that night, tormented by the thought that soon Lilly will be gone. After what feels like hours of laying awake I finally drift off to sleep, and my alarm jolts me awake once again a couple hours after that. I groggily get ready for the day, having no motivation to go out and run this morning.

I walk to the main building, calling Hisao on the way to make sure he remembers to go to the nurse. Once inside the building I make my way to mr. Mutou's room, greeting him as I walk in, dumping my bag by my chair next to his desk. He looks, as usual, more haggard than I feel. We look over the test material and finalize what I'm going to be going over in my review today, and once finished, I get up and leave the room, looking for a vending machine to get some kind of caffeinated drink.

I quickly realize that there's not much to be found, as most of the individuals in this school either have no need for caffeine or shouldn't have it at all. I have to walk halfway through the building before I find a machine that dispenses something called Kyokyo Daha, a fairly common energy drink in Japan. By the time I get my drink the five-minute warning bell sounded about three minutes ago, and I re-enter my classroom a couple minutes after the final bell. Once I enter, all the students are looking at me. Hisao is present, so I assume he made it to the nurse. I down the drink and toss it towards the trash can, "Alright! Let's get this done!" I exclaim, grabbing my notes to begin the lecture.

…

I made a mistake. I try not to drink energy drinks all that often, and as a result I'm extremely jittery as I go through the review, pacing around, moving my arms and hands more than I need to, blending my words together when I talk because I'm trying to talk too fast. I regularly call upon the students to answer questions to give myself a second to re-compose my thoughts.

"Ritsu!"

"Yes!?" The girl who sits a couple seats away from Hanako in the back jerks herself into a standing position as I call on her.

"The resistance, or loss, of force is commonly due to what?"

"Uh, Friction!...?"

"Yes. Haruhiko!"

"Huh?" A guy who sits near the door, who was previously doodling onto his notebook, looks up at me.

"How do we measure force?"

"In… Newtons of energy?"

"I'll take it. Shiina!"

"Yeah!" The pink haired girl shoots a hand up in excitement.

"If I drop a ten kilo weight off of a 1000 meter tall building in a frictionless environment, how fast will it be going at exactly three seconds after I drop it assuming gravity acceleration is a constant 10m/s^2?"

"It- Uh… Uh…" Shiina, most people call her Misha, suddenly looks down and scratches her head, trying to do mental math.

"Just kidding. Name four types of energy."

"Oh… Potential, Kinetic, Thermal, an-"

Everyone save Shizune jumps as an alarm suddenly starts blaring. It's the school emergency alarm, and after it ends a very shaky voice comes over the intercom system. "A-Attention everyone! There's been a p-person with a gun sighted in the school." My heart stops for a second, the class beginning to voice the unease that I now feel. "Please stay calm and quiet, stay within your classroom, and lock the door. If you are in the halls, go to your nearest exit. The police have been notified and are on their way. Again, p-please remain calm."

"Fuck." I go to the door and lock it, then flick the light switch, while the students are muttering amongst themselves. "Everyone be quiet!" I say in a harsh whisper, more forcefully than I intended. Everyone shuts up. Once again I'm in a situation where I have to do everything I can to look calm, but inside I'm scared out of my mind.

Why would someone carry a gun into this school? Where'd they get a gun in the first place? Is it a student? Teacher? Parent? All these questions swarm through my head. I walk back over to my bag and take a deep breath, desperately attempting to calm myself. One thing the army is good at, is teaching you how to shut up, stop asking questions, and just do what you need to do. I stop and look at the students, still sitting at their desks. Turning off the lights didn't do much to dim the room due to the two large windows letting in the late morning sunlight. My gaze lingers slightly on Hanako, Lilly's best friend, and Shizune, her cousin. Right now what I have to do is use every measure at my disposal to ensure these kids' safety.

I turn to face Mr. Mutou, looking at him with a serious face. "Sensei, I'm about to do something I really should not do, I'm definitely going to get into a lot of trouble if I do it. Before I do it, I need to know, do you trust me?"

Mr. Mutou looks at me with the same expression for a moment, then nods. I ask the same question of the students, a few of them nod as well, though they look considerably uneasy. I turn around and reach for my bag, pausing for a moment. I really can get into a world of trouble if anyone finds out about this. "Please don't tell anyone." I say to the class in general as I open the largest compartment in my rucksack.

The first thing I pull out is an item that makes up a majority of the weight that's usually in my pack, a small chest harness that has two ceramic plates contained within Kevlar pockets that cover my chest and back, commonly known in the military as a "plate carrier". I put the carrier on over my shirt, then put on a light jacket to conceal it. The next item I draw is my most prized possession, one that my dad had to ship to me in 20 different pieces over the course of about four months. It's a Dakota Tactical D54R-N, basically the civilian model of a HK M P5N.

When I pull out the smg there's an audible gasp from the class. "M-Mr. Roberts!" Mr. Mutou exclaims.

I look at him, he and the students are looking at me like _I'm _the school shooter, I smirk, "I am a soldier, you know." I unfold the buttstock, then attach a suppressor to the end of the barrel, and finally retrieve two fully loaded 30 round 9mm magazines, one I stuff in my pocket, the other I insert into the weapon, smacking the charging handle down to load the first round into the chamber.

I sling the weapon around my neck and stuff it under my jacket. Next I draw out my personal concealed carry weapon, a Glock 17. I chamber a round and place it on Mutou's desk, nodding at him. "I'm gonna stand guard in the hallway, lock the door behind me, keep them safe. All you gotta do is squeeze the trigger." I tell him.

I walk to the door before he can properly respond, unlocking and opening it as quietly as I can. I peek out into the hall, it's empty. Slipping out into the hall, I keep a hand on my weapon to keep it from swinging everywhere.

There's four classrooms in this small hallway, 3-1 through 3-4 for all the third year students. I pick a spot roughly in the middle of the rooms on the opposite end of the hall, where all I have to do is turn my head a little to be able to see down both ends of the hall. I lean against the wall and listen, there's been no gunfire so far, that would've been heard no matter where it was at in the building, and I'm not hearing any footsteps, so either the shooter has a class held hostage or he's wandering around somewhere else.

I have a strange sensation crawling throughout my body. My heart is pounding but I feel calm, focused, hyper-aware of every sound and smell and detail around me. It's obviously the adrenaline dump kicking into full effect, my brain reacting to the unseen danger that could arrive at literally any moment. I chuckle as I realize that the last time I felt like this, I lost an eye.

I decide not to try and pursue the shooter, there's too many risks associated with it, too many things in his favor in this scenario. I don't know what he looks like, or if he even is a _he._ I don't know where he's at, what his motivation is, whether or not he has hostages, or killing intent. It may put other students at risk, but I need to stay here, at least I can keep these few classes safe and keep myself from becoming another potential death.

I pull out my phone and start to call some of the other classes to ensure that they're fine, but stop. If I call the desk phone, it'll make an annoyingly loud ring, putting anyone in the room at risk, and if the shooter is in the room with the teacher, I'm not likely to get an honest response to any questions I ask. Instead I call Lilly's phone.

She picks up after a couple rings, "Hello?" She says, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Lilly, it's Jacob." I say quietly, glancing around. "Listen carefully, if the shooter is _not _in your room, say 'five'."

"Five." She replies almost immediately.

Ok, it's not likely that he's in there, her response would've been delayed out of fear. I continue, "Ok, is everyone in your room fine?"

"Yes, everyone's alright, oh, except for Kenji, he was in the bathroom when the lockdown happened."

"Fuck, ok, I'll keep an eye out for him."

"What? What what do you mean?"

"I'm in the hall."

"What!? Why?"

"I've got a weapon on me and I'm watching for the shooter. I'll be ok."

"You should've stayed in the classroom."

"Lilly I'll be fine. It's me we're talking about."

"You just want me to worry… *sigh* fine, but if you get shot I'm going to kill you."

"I'll let you… I'm gonna hang up now. I love you."

"I… Y-You too, stay safe."

I hang up and stow my phone. I continue to wait, switching my gaze from one end of the hallway to the other. After what feels like ten minutes, I check my watch to find out that only about four have passed. Shortly after this, I hear footsteps coming down the hall, from the direction of the second year classes. I push off the wall and stand a couple feet away from it, hands down at my sides, facing towards the sound, attempting to look as non-threatening as possible, yet still ready to respond to threats. My right hand rests upon the open zipper of my jacket, ready to fling it to the side.

The footsteps draw closer, and around the corner comes Kenji. He's walking very casually for someone in a potential shooting scenario, I wonder if he even knows what's going on. "Kenji!" I call out to him once I recognize him as he's roughly 30 feet away.

He jumps back a good three feet when I call out to him, he didn't know I was there on account of his legal blindness that even his humongous glasses can't help. "Who's there!?" He yells. I notice his hand jerk to his back pocket.

"It's Jacob, calm down, where were you?" I say.

"Jacob? Jacob who? I can't remember any Jacobs that I know, that's a weird name, the perfect name for a spy."

"Mr. Roberts… From your buddy Hisao's class… I helped you and him with your homework the other day."

"Oh… Oh, it's you! Hey man, how's it going? I like you, you're one of the few ones I can trust." He walks up within a few feet of me.

He didn't answer my question. And trust me? I've had maybe three interactions with him, but whatever. "What are you doing out here? You should've gone straight to your classroom when the lockdown started."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm kinda the reason why that's going on."

A chill runs through my body. "_What?_"

"Yeah so I called the school a few minutes ago and told them I was gonna bring a gun into a classroom so that they'd be aware."

"W-Why?" I take a step away from him.

"I finally figured it out, man. All the feminists, they control everything: Education, Media, Religion, Business. So, I have to make a scene, I'm gonna hold a class hostage, and they're gonna listen to what I have to say. If the media airs it, great. If they don't, others will find my words and discover the truth! It's foolproof."

"You have a gun on you?"

"Yeah." He pulls a handgun from his back pocket, it's a Sig P226, pretty common on the black market from what I hear.

"You were gonna shoot up a class full of-"

"Wish woah woah, no I was not, I'm a revolutionary, not a murderer, I was only gonna shoot some warning shots if someone tried to stop me."

"Kenji. You know I can't let you do this right?"

"What? Why not? I'm not gonna hurt anyone, man, I like most of the guys in my class, but the truth needs to get out there."

"Kenji, listen to me, this isn't the right way to do it, everyone's just gonna think you're a terrorist or a psycho. You'll be lucky if the cops don't just shoot you."

"Nah man it's cool! If I get hurt I'll just be a martyr! It's a win-win!"

"Kenji, please just listen to me, if you try to go into one of those rooms, I'm-"

"Hey… Why are you so against this? You're a soldier right, so why would you…" His eyes go wide and his face shows a look of horror, "You don't work for the feminists do you?"

"No Kenji, I don't, they wouldn't accept my resumé." I try to joke to lighten the situation.

"Don't bullshit me!" He suddenly explodes, taking a step back and pointing his gun at me. "How do I know you're not lying! You're a sleeper cell aren't you!? You've been waiting, they've known about me all along haven't they? Dammit!"

"Kenji calm down! I'm not a feminist, I just don't want anyone here to get hurt, least of all you." I hold my hands up and start inching towards him, hoping to get a hand on his weapon and disarm him.

"Lies! You're just like the rest of them! All liars and man-haters. I can't trust anyone anymore!" He's shaking in rage, tears forming in his squinty eyes.

"Kenji, you _can _trust me! I don't lie, and I'm not a fucking feminist spy or whatever, I'm just a guy trying to protect some kids and the girl he loves." I chuckle, I don't know why I said that but man does it sound corny.

"You… have a… girlfriend?" Kenji suddenly goes quiet. "So… they _did _get you!" He squeezes the trigger on his handgun, I hear a loud cracking sound, then my ears start ringing, and I feel like someone just punched me in the chest. I stagger back a step as the round impacts into my plate carrier.

Kenji was only a couple feet from me when he fired, but luckily these plates are just about impervious to handgun rounds. I get another adrenaline dump and time slows down for me, my eyesight going all screwy as everything takes on a slightly gray tone. I roar as I lunge forward as Kenji recoils from the shot, not having any kind of good shooting position made him stumble.

I grab Kenji's gun arm at the wrist and jerk it up, then grab his collar with my other hand and push him back, bull rushing him like an offensive lineman in football. As we near the wall separating the classrooms from the hallway I push him into it, still holding him.

I had thought that the walls in this building were brick with drywall overlays. They're not, or at least this one isn't, it's just straight drywall with no real studs to support it. So the 400-ish pounds of force I have going into the wall breaks it, and we fall through the wall, landing on top of, and demolishing Haruhiko's desk.

The students scream as we explode through the wall, and we fall to the ground with me on top of him. Kenji and I are disorientated but I pull myself up, he had dropped his gun at some point and he's trying to find it, but I put a hand around his throat and shift my legs that I'm sitting on his chest, my knees on his shoulders, pinning him down. He starts scratching at my legs, flailing his own legs as he tries desperately to free himself. I release his throat and draw my weapon.

In this exact moment I see him as nothing more than an enemy, a threat I need to eliminate, someone who just shot me and may very well do so again if I let him. I hold my gun awkwardly, the strap getting caught on my arms, and shove the barrel into his mouth. It takes all my mental fortitude to not pull the trigger, barely remembering that he's just a scared kid.

"KENJI! STOP! OR I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" I scream in English into his face, barely inches away from my own. I'm panting heavily from the adrenaline and fear, sweat forming on my face and neck. His breaths are shallow and gagged, strained from my weight on his lungs.

"Ah… Sahrry…" He barely manages to choke out, his eyes wide and teary in abject terror. After a couple seconds I jerk my weapon back and throw it away, it slides on the floor for a couple feet before it hits a desk and stops. I look at him. I was about to end his life. I was about to be responsible for the death of this young man. A single tear drops from my eye and lands on his face, causing him to flinch and blink. I start sobbing. I get off him and grab him, pulling him into an embrace. "You idiot! You stupid fucking kid! Did you want me to kill you, huh?" I continue crying, as does he, and I think a couple other students do too, but I'm not sure.

Once I'm finally able to compose myself I get up, putting my stuff away into my bag. Kenji simply sits there, bleeding from the scratches to his head and hands. No one else moves. Once my weapons and armor are stored away I tell Mr. Mutou to call the police and tell them that Kenji is restrained, but he barely has time to dial the number before a SWAT team pounds on the door, a couple officers shining lights and weapons through the hole in the wall.

The police responded to the shot being fired, I'm lucky it took them as long as it did to get here, otherwise I'd have to deal with a lot of questions and probably a few knees on my back and neck. The officers escort us out of the building once they've taken Kenji away and ensured that there aren't any other shooters. While outside I talk with the police and tell them what happened, omitting some of the details on how exactly I dodged a bullet from him. A little while after the police talk with me, I get a call from my platoon sergeant.

"Yes sergeant?"

"Roberts, you alright?"

"Yeah sarge, never been better, you heard?"

"The news just started covering it, the shooter been apprehended yet?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You take him down?" He asks jokingly.

"Yeah."

"Wait… Huh?"

"I took down the shooter. Tackled him through a wall."

"No fucking way."

"Yes way, I'm sure they'll mention it in the papers."

"I'll believe that when I see it. But anyways, you're gonna need to come back to post. CO's gonna want a debrief and all that shit, plus we need to make sure you're as good as you say you are."

"Alright, when do you want me back?"

"Today, as soon as you can."

"Ah, shit, roger sarge. How long is this gonna take?"

"A couple days, and we're just gonna end your leave a little early, get you back to work here. You got a date or something?"

I feel mad. Like really, really mad. This means I may not be able to see Lilly off when she goes to Scotland. "Uh… Kinda, but it's not super important."

"Alright, we'll see you back here then."

…

I call each of my friends as I ride on the train back to Camp Zama, letting them know that I won't be around too much but I'll try to keep in touch with them in the future. I tell Lilly that I'll do everything I can to see her off. During the ride a news station reports that Kenji was apprehended, suffering only scratches and bruises and… Burns on his throat? Weird, maybe that's a translation error on my part. During the next few days life returns to normal for the students of Yamaku, they complete their finals and the seniors prepare to graduate.

For me, I go through numerous debriefings, classes, meetings, and counselings. My leadership confirms with news agencies, the school, faculty and students, and the police, that I did in fact do everything that I said I did, and so the Army gives me some chest candy: the Soldier's Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, and Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. They go well with my Silver Star and Purple Heart, some of my buddies call me Audie Murphy as a joke. I also get a promotion from Specialist to Sergeant.

The day of Lilly's flight to Scotland arrives, and of course I'm stuck at work until 1700. I spend the whole day impatiently waiting to get told to go home, but that never happens. Finally, after filing dozens of patient reports at our aid station, my medical platoon sergeant comes into my office and tells me that I'm good to go for the day. I bolt out of the building, only having a little over an hour to get from my base to the airport before Lilly's flight leaves, so realistically I have about half an hour to find her before she goes through security. She said she'd be at the airport around 1730.

I don't even change out of my duty uniform before I run to the train station, just barely catching the train going out. The ride to the area near the airport takes 20 minutes, the entire time I'm nervous and anxious as all hell. I know Lilly will understand if I can't make it, but I won't be able to forgive myself. This will be the last time I see Lilly for a long time.

Once the train reaches my stop I work my way through the crowd and up onto the street. Luckily the train terminal is basically across the street from the entrance to the airport, and once out of the terminal I finally have the idea to call Lilly. Hundreds of people are bustling around mess I stand there messing with my phone. I try to call her, only to find out that I have no service for some reason.

"Fuck." I start walking towards the nearest crosswalk, looking across the street on the off-chance that I notice her. Luckily I'm easily a head taller than the sea of people around me. By some miracle I catch a glimpse of two blonde heads walking towards the airport entrance, a few inches taller than the black and brunette heads around them. "Lilly! Lilly!" I yell across the street, causing several people near me to stare in irritation.

I see one of the blonde heads stop and turn slightly at the sound of my voice, which probably doesn't carry well due to the dozens of other voices and cars in the area. The head then resumes its movement toward the doors. I look at the crosswalk, maybe 40 yards away. The walk light is still red and I'm not sure how long it'll stay that way.

Fuck it, I've gone this far, I'm not gonna lose her now. I run out into the street, glancing to my left as I do so, the cars on the near side have just stopped, waiting for the light, so I should be-

Just as I clear the near cars a motorcycle comes out of nowhere in the middle of the road between the lanes. It slams into my side and I'm lifted into the air, my forward momentum carrying me forward into the opposite lane, where I impact into the windshield of a car. Everything goes black.

…

Everything is pain. I slowly open my eye, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. I can't open my eye fully, and it feels swollen. I try to sit up but am met with a wave of pain throughout my whole body, forcing me back down onto the bed I'm in. "Oh good, you're awake." I hear a voice to my right. I turn and see my platoon sergeant sitting in a chair next to my hospital bed, looking at the monitor displaying my vitals, and the bag of IV fluid dripping into my arm.

"The fuck?" I say groggily.

"That's what I'd like to know too. I let you go home, not even an hour later I get a call from this hospital saying you ran out into the street and got blindsided. So why the hell did you decide to play Frogger?"

"Oh. Heheh." I chuckle, a huge mistake in my condition. "I was uh… chasing my girl."

"Your girl?"

"Yeah, my girlfriend, she's flying back home to Scotland today… Can you sit me up?"

My sergeant presses a button on the bed to raise one half and put me into more or less a sitting position. I look at the drab and sterile walls of my room, a sliding glass door and curtain separating me from the rest of the ER. "So you were so desperate to say bye to your boo you almost killed yourself. God dammit, you're the reason why we have safety briefings, you know that?"

"Yeah." I look at the clock, it's been a little over an hour since I got hit. "She's long gone by now." I say dejectedly, angry and depressed that I was so close but couldn't at least talk to her one more time before she left. I stare blankly back at the ceiling.

"Hmm, well, I don't know what to say. There's plenty of fish in the sea, though."

"I'm not a fisherman." I mumble. I think about Lilly, her smile, her eyes, her hair. I smile a little, "I'm a florist."

My sergeant stands up. "Alright, well I'm gonna go talk with the doc, you just rest up, all your stuff is on that table, give me a call when you're released, I'll come pick you up."

"Rah." Is all I say, still staring at nothing.

My sergeant leaves and I sit there, alone, listening to the faint bustle of the ER outside, going over what happened in my head and kicking myself for being so stupid. I was so focused on seeing her and maybe surprising her that I never once thought to call her. Loneliness and boredom overtake me and I feel a tear roll down my eye. I chuckle as I think that I cry way more than a guy probably should.

My self-deprecating thoughts are interrupted as the door opens and a nurse pokes her head in, "Mr. Roberts, you have another visitor."

"Mmm." Is my only response, it's probably one of my buddies in my unit.

"Jacob?" My head jerks down as I hear her voice. Lilly is standing next to the nurse, wearing her usual beige long-sleeve shirt and skirt, her beautiful face as composed as it always is.

"Lilly? W-What…" I can't even form words right now, I'm completely bewildered.

The nurse leaves, closing the door, and Lilly walks over to the side of my bed. Am I dreaming? I have to be dreaming. She leans over and very gingerly holds my face in her hands, tracing my scarred and swollen head with her fingers. "If you weren't hurting right now I'd slap you." She says with a slight smile, tears forming in her oceanic eyes.

"Huh?" I ask. She slowly draws her body close to mine and hugs me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"You idiot. You stupid idiot! Why'd you have to go and get yourself hurt again?" Lilly starts crying, I can feel the moisture on my shoulder.

"I never said I was smart." I say, she chuckles. "I'm sorry though, I was too busy thinking about you."

"You act like we were never going to see each other again. Jacob, I love _you_. I will only ever love you, I don't care how long it takes, I want to stay with you forever."

"What about Scotland? Your family?" I ask.

"I don't care about that right now, they left me and Akira here for ten years, they can wait a little while longer. Right now, you are my family, and… I don't want to leave you. I love you."

I can't respond with anything, so I kiss her cheek and enjoy the warmth of her embrace. "I love you too."


	6. Chapter 6: Epilogue

It's been about a year since that accident. Lilly decided to stay with me in Japan, so I had her registered as my dependent so that she could be with me on base. After a couple months I applied to become a drill sergeant and was accepted, and so while I transferred to Fort Sill, Lilly went back to Scotland for a week or so to visit her parents again, until I had everything squared away stateside.

She's supposed to fly in tomorrow, but it's also my day off, so I'm spending my nice summer afternoon shopping. I enter the store and make my way to the back counter, glancing at the products in glass display cases as I go. "Good afternoon. Can I help you with anything, sir?" The lady at the counter asks me as I walk.

"Yes, I was wondering if you make custom rings."

"Yes, we certainly do, what did you have in mind?"

"Nothing too fancy, just a silver band with a few small diamonds on it."

"Ok, we can definitely do that, who is this for, if I may ask?"

"My girlfriend, it's gonna be, uh, an engagement ring."

"Oh, wonderful! What kind of ring were you thinking she would like?" The jeweler, or whatever they're called, motions toward a display of several different styled ring bands and diamond cuts.

"She doesn't wear much jewelry, so I'm not too sure." I chuckle, looking over the display. "But I would like the diamonds arranged in a specific way, so I might have to go with a thicker band, or even a men's ring."

"Hmm, I don't know, I don't think she'd like the look of a men's ring." The lady jokes.

I smile, "I don't think she'll mind too much, since she's blind."

The woman's face goes red as she attempts to apologize, "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, it's fine. So I'll probably take this band, and I'll go with a few of these diamonds." I choose a fairly wide band and the smallest circular diamonds on display. "And I'd like them in this arrangement." I take out a small scrap of paper and hand it to the lady. She looks at it for a moment. It has two lines across it, as well as about two dozen dots on it.

"Is this…" The woman starts, a little unsure.

"Braille? Yeah. It says 'I love you.'"

"Aww, that's so cute. Yes, this should be simple for us, we should have it done… in about a month. We're a little backlogged on custom orders right now."

"That's fine, thank you very much."

"No, thank you sir. Now, your total comes to… 1,299.99. You can pay it when it's finished after you're satisfied with the product."

"Oof, Alright. Thank you." I give the lady my information and leave the store, pulling out my phone, and dialing a number.

"...Hello?" The voice on the other end says.

"Mr. Satou, this is Jacob, how are you doing?"

"Oh I'm doing well… Wait, Jacob who?"

"Jacob Roberts, I'm the man dating your daughter."

"Oh! Yes, she speaks very highly of you. What can I do for you?"

"I have something that I need to talk to you about, concerning your daughter…"

…

The next day I pick up Lilly from the airport, she tells me about how her family is doing and how her online college courses are going. We get back to our house and I set Lilly's bag down in the entryway. I take a moment to properly hug and kiss Lilly after not seeing her for a couple weeks. "Would you care to show me around the house?" She asks coyly.

**Lemon**

"I would love to, let's start with the bedroom." I reply, taking her hand on mine and leading the way to the bed. We kick off our shoes and I walk her into our bedroom. "Now, this is the bedroom, it has some nice beige walls that we aren't allowed to re-color." I say. Lilly giggles.

I walk with her over to our bed, "And this is the bed, feel how soft it is." I guide her hand onto the comforter.

"Mmm, it is very soft." Lilly says. I run my hands up her arms and down her back. Moving so that I'm behind her, I keep going down and fondle her ass cheeks through her black yoga pants. She lays her head and upper body on the bed, bending at the waist to present her rear to me. She does this sort of thing a lot, she enjoys it when I play with her butt, spank her, or fuck her doggy-style.

I continue to rub her ass and pussy with one hand as I undo the button and zipper on my pants. I pull down my own pants and then hers, once again marveling at how round and smooth her bare ass is. I spank her a couple times, eliciting some "mmm" and "ah" sounds from her. After that I stick a couple fingers inside her pussy, which come back out soaked, and I run my hands over her clit, feeling the sexy trimmed hair just above her vagina.

Finally I can't take it anymore, and I position my dick and thrust myself into her. I feel the now-familiar sensation of her pussy walls tightening around my cock, as if welcoming it with an embrace. My initial thrust draws a gasp from Lilly, and she clenches the bedsheets in pleasure. I start fucking her, moving slowly to get a good angle and tempo going, then going faster to give both of us maximum pleasure.

Lilly has her head turned to the side, her eyes closed as she starts panting, giving in to lust. She reaches a hand back to try and feel me, so I grab her wrist with one hand, using it as leverage to pound into her harder. I spank her several more times as I fuck her, her panting and gasping turning into moaning.

I'm beginning to pant and grunt myself from the exertion. With my free hand I grab a fistful of her hair and pull it back towards me to bring her head up, then pushing back down to press her face into the bed, her moans getting louder, but muffled, as I go faster and harder. I pull her head back up and lean in, letting go of her hand and hair to wrap my hands around and grab her tits, pulling her body up against mine.

I rest my head against the side of hers, and she places one hand on my head, the other on my thigh, as I hold her tightly. Her face is flushed, but she's smiling. "I missed this." She says in a hushed, breathless whisper.

"Me too." I reply, kissing her cheek and neck. I pull out of her and let her crawl onto the bed. She lays on her back and I get on top of her, speeding her legs and re-entering her. She wraps her legs around my back as I keep thrusting, her hands feeling my face in the characteristic way that she does. After a minute I take her hands in mind and push them down.

I'm now privy to the most beautiful sight ever: Lilly, with her long blonde hair strewn everywhere on the bed, her amazing figure laid bare before me, her huge tits jiggling up and down as I ran my cock into her pussy, that squeezes me with all its might, refusing to let me go, me connected with her in so many ways, holding her hands as she stares up, not quite looking at me, with those gorgeous eyes and face showing a look of pure love and passion that no one else on earth could ever replicate, as she gasps and moans, and begs for more, for me to go harder, she begs for my seed.

I can feel her genuine love for me pouring into my soul, and I respond to that by filling her up with all of my love. The sensation of my seed entering her when I finally cum causes her to orgasm as well, she cries out in ecstasy and tightens her legs as she squirts, covering my dick in her pussy juice as I fill her vaginal walls with semen. I pump all that I have into her, then pull out.

She let's go of me and we lay on the bed together, I nuzzle my head in between her breasts and use them as a pillow while she strokes my hair, holding me as if I were her child. "I love you." I say simply.

"I love you too."

"...Hey… You're on the pill, right?"

A soft chuckle, "Yes."

"Ok good."

**Lemon done**

…

A little over a year and a half goes by, Lilly lives with me now, I haven't proposed, yet, I'm waiting for her to finish a little more of her college so that she doesn't have the stress of that on top of planning a wedding to deal with. She works as a teacher's assistant at the school on post, earning a little extra credit and some money to support her degree. I found it a little funny that she now had the same job I had that allowed me to meet her. I finally finished up all my required courses and have a bachelor's degree in general education, better than nothing, so I would help her out with some of her courses when I could.

I've kept working as a drill sergeant, it's a pretty stressful job, but it's rewarding, I'd rather be doing this than be a recruiter, at least. I was originally worried about being too stressed because of this job, but the ability to yell at and smoke trainees is very therapeutic, and sometimes Lilly is waiting for me at home, preparing dinner while wearing nothing but an apron, ready to do some stress relief of her own.

After a while, being a drill sergeant actually gets pretty fun. After the first few weeks of each training cycle, most of the recruits have their shit together, so I don't have to scream at them or smoke them as much, though I do scare the fuck out of the new trainees because of my eyepatch and scars. I develop my own persona as a DS, my fellow drills call me the nice guy since I apparently punish the trainees the least out of all of them, and I also throw out little jokes, such as when we're at the range and a trainee can't hit shit, I say "Damn trainee, my girlfriend shoots better than you."

Right now I'm standing in front of what's left of my eighth cycle, Charlie Battery 1/19 Field Artillery, 2nd Platoon, Regulators. Funny enough this is the same platoon that I graduated basic in, so many years ago. Well, it's only been like four. Anyways, this cycle lost ten trainees from this platoon. Four got held back medically due to broken bones, two got kicked out for failure to adapt, two just decided to quit during the first week, and two tried to kill themselves, one succeeded.

This has been a rough cycle, for me and my platoon. As the senior drill sergeant for the platoon it's my responsibility to make sure all of these kids turn into good soldiers, so right now, I'm inspecting their class A's one last time before their graduation tomorrow. Once I'm done inspecting I take them up to the bay (where they sleep), have them change into PT's, and I sit them all down to give them a speech about going forward that I give to all my classes.

"Alright, I want you all to think about a few things as you go forward. As you all know, we lost a good amount of trainees this cycle, for various reasons. The fact that they are not here with you right now is proof of only one thing: That you are better than them. As you keep going in the Army, you will run into people that will already have quit in their own mind at so many different things. Stay the fuck away from them. They will only try to drag you down with them so they have someone to be miserable with.

"I want you all to remember that suffering is only temporary, that the reward at the top of the mountain is always worth the climb. I don't care what your reason for joining the military is, but you need to remember that reason when you're sucking, and I can tell you right now, these last two months have been the easiest of your entire career. You need-"

"Drill Sergeant Roberts!" The sound of my Senior Drill Sergeant's voice cuts through the bay. I turn and see him standing by the door, motioning me over to him. I walk over and he mumbles "Your girlfriend's here."

I blink a couple times, "What?" I look behind him, and standing there is Lilly. "Uh… actually, senior, could I keep her with me? I'm talking to my platoon and I could use her."

My senior looks at me, then my platoon, "Fuck it, fine, but she needs to be gone by the time they all go to bed."

"Roger." I take Lilly's hand and lead her into the room, she stands beside me as I'm up in front of my trainees. They look at her, her eyes are closed and she has a gentle, serene expression on. "So uh… Anyways, uh, as I was saying: You all need to find something worth striving for, worth fighting for. I don't care what it is, your mom, dad, brother, sister, wife, husband, son, daughter. Find the thing that keeps you going and you will do things you never thought you could.

"And at the same time, you need to adopt the mindset that there are no bad days, there are good days, and there are days that teach you something about yourself. There are no accidents, everything happens for a reason. Let me tell y'all a story that I haven't told any other cycle before you. About three years ago I lost this eye in Syria, I got shot trying to save my buddy who just got his leg blown off. Because I lost my eye I got sent to Japan. While there I stared working towards my Bachelor's degree, and I met this fine young lady right here.

"Remember how I would sometimes tell y'all that my girlfriend shoots better than you? Well that's because even though I only have one working eye, she has zero." Lilly opens her eyes and glances at me. "And even though she was blind since birth, she never once thought that her life was worse than anyone else's. She's never once wished that she could see. And to be fair, she's the only one who's ever truly seen who I am.

"This amazing woman is my reason for fighting, my motivation to prepare every day for the possibility of killing another person who tries to hurt someone I love. You all need to find what I have found. Find something worth killing for and stick with it, love it with every fiber of your being, because that burning passion will ignite the fire of hatred towards anyone who might do them harm.

"This woman is the greatest thing that's happened to me… Which is why I'm gonna do something that I think no other Drill Sergeant has done before." I turn, facing Lilly. My heart is pounding. I get down on my knee, reaching into my pocket for the item that I've kept there for over a year, waiting until the right time.

A good amount of my platoon start going "ohhhh!" When I do this. Lilly's still facing the others, I grab her hand. "Lilly Satou…" I say quietly. She turns her body and looks down towards me. "You are the most incredible woman I've ever met." I hold her hand as I talk, her confused expression slowly shifting as she realizes what I'm doing. "It would be the greatest honor for me to spend the rest of my life with you." I put the ring on her finger. "Will you marry me?"

Lilly feels the ring with her hand, tears start welling up in her eyes as she translates the studs on it. She nods her head, unable to speak. I stand up and hug her.

And then everyone clapped.

No but seriously, my platoon started hooting and hollering. "Hey! Quiet the fuck down! You wanna make noise? Let's make noise while we're pushing! Front leaning rest position, move!" I yell, all the trainees get ready to do push-ups. I take off my campaign hat and join them. "Let's knock out a few for my fiancée! In cadence!"

My trainees echo my commands, and we all do about 40 push-ups. I get up, "Alright, y'all are good for the night, make sure this bay's clean!" I then take Lilly and walk with her back to her car.

…

Eight months go by, lots and lots and lots of planning, and finally I'm standing in front of an altar in a cathedral, Hisao, the best man, next to me, my brother behind him. Hanako, the maid of honor, is across from me, Akira right behind her, Shizune and Misha behind Akira. My brother and I are wearing our class A's, Hisao and the other groomsmen are wearing tuxedos with silver bow-ties. Hanako, Akira, and the other bridesmaids are all wearing silver dresses.

We all wait anxiously, the congregation consisting of both my and Lilly's family, as well as close friends. Eventually the doors at the back of the sanctuary open and in comes Lilly, escorted by her father. She is absolutely stunning, her strapless dress with frills tuning down to the floor and full sleeve gloves look amazing on her. She has a short train that's held up by a couple of my second cousins, her veil hiding her features, though I know her eyes are closed and her face has the same regal expression that is her favorite to wear.

The ceremony begins and goes off well, it's a struggle to maintain my military bearing while all of this sheer happiness is coursing through my body. At the point where the priest says the whole "if you don't think these two should be wed, speak now" bit, I draw my Glock from where I had it concealed at my hip and cock it, sweeping my gaze over the attendants, getting a good laugh from everyone. Finally, at the end, after placing our wedding rings on each other's hands, we say our vows. I begin, "Lilly, from the first moment that I met you, I thought that you were super hot. And as I talked with you, got to know you, and was around you more and more, I then thought that you were an amazing person _and _super hot. You're an incredibly strong woman, you're a pillar that holds up everyone around you, you're a lighthouse that guides me. You are everything I could ask for and then some, and I wake up every day thanking God that He blessed me with the opportunity of meeting one of His angels. I will cherish you and love you and protect you for as long as I need to. You inspire me every day to be the best man that I can be, I love you forever and always."

"Jacob… You stole my lines, heheheh. You are so strong, so selfless, it's almost infuriating. All of the times you sacrificed for my sake, for Hanako, Hisao, your family, your squad mates. Experiencing and hearing about all the times you would put yourself in danger, it made me worry about you, it made me want to hide you away and keep you safe from this world, and it made me fall in love with you. I saw in you something that needed to be loved, and I loved it. I saw something that needed support, so I will be your support and comfort, your partner and lover, your companion and friend. You don't need to crawl through the darkness alone anymore, because I will be right beside you the entire way, and I have a lot of experience of being in the dark. I will guide you through your life, through all the trials and tribulations. I will love you forever, and be with you always."

After Lilly says her vows, I look at the priest, doing everything I can not to tear up, "Say it, please just say it dude."

The priest chuckles, "By the power invested in me by God, I pronounce you husband and wife. Mr. Roberts, you may kiss your bride."

And you bet your ass I kiss the fuck outta my bride. After the ceremony we go to the reception, eating and drinking and dancing. Lilly and I have spent weeks practicing dancing, and for our first dance as a couple we dance to "Everything I Need" by Skylar Grey. We have a parents/children dance where my mom dances with me, crying her eyes out, saying how proud of me she is. We have a wedding party dance, where Hisao tries to steal my spotlight by proposing to Hanako. She says yes. I surprise Lilly by sitting her on my lap on a chair and singing "In Her Eyes" by Josh Groban to her.

All in all, it's an amazing day, the best day of my life. Lilly and I take our leave and go home, changing, then grabbing our bags to go to our honeymoon in Vegas.

…

A few months later, Lilly and I are at home, I've completed my time as a drill sergeant and am working on becoming an officer now that I have my Bachelor's. I finished all the paperwork and turned it in yesterday, and I'm now waiting to be accepted into Officer Candidate School. I'm currently etching a lily flower onto the grip of my Glock. Lilly comes downstairs with our laptop, sitting on the couch and opening it. "Honey, can you read some emails out for me?" She asks.

I get up and go over to her, giving her a quick kiss, then opening up her email and looking at the screen, "Ok, which one?"

"It should be the top one."

I click on it, it's a message from her boss, "Uh, 'Next Friday is a work day for the teachers, so the students won't be at school, but we still need you to come in. After we are done all of the English teachers will meet at Blake's Tavern to celebrate your pregnancy… Pregnancy?" I look at Lilly.

"I'm pregnant." She says, smiling sweetly.

I stay still and silent for a good ten seconds, the gears in my head cranking into motion. Once I process what I just heard I freak out, ecstatic, I don't even form coherent words, I just yell and laugh and hug her and kiss her. I almost break the laptop. We've been trying for a baby since our honeymoon. I jump around and laugh, then I call my mom to let her know.

…

Nine months later I'm in a hospital. Lilly is screaming her head off, squeezing my arm so much it's bruising. "A little more baby, just a little more." I tell her, standing by her head.

"There's crowning. Just a couple more pushes, Mrs. Roberts." The doctor says, crouched in front of Lilly's crotch.

"aaAAAAAAAAAH!" Is her only response.

Five minutes later, after an hour of being in labor, Lilly gives birth to the most beautiful baby girl I've ever seen. The midwife hands the screaming child to her, who begins suckling her. I stroke Lilly's messed up hair and press my face against hers as I gaze in awe of the infantile human that we produced. "Lilly, I'm gonna tell you right now that there's very little I wouldn't give up, just so you had vision for a minute, so you can see how beautiful our daughter is."

Lilly holds our daughter, Violet, with one hand as she sucks on her tit, and very lightly caresses her face, head, and body with the other, imprinting her shape into her mind. "No, I can tell right now just how beautiful she is."

"Well she does look like you." I say, laughing.

"Oh shut up." Lilly turns her head and kisses my cheek. "I hate you. That hurt like hell."

"I love you too." I chuckle, kissing her back.

…

Two years go by. I become an officer in the army, quickly making my way up to first lieutenant, close to becoming a captain. Violet learns to walk and talk, I learn how to be a father. My love for Violet soon equals my love for Lilly. They both are now the most important things in my life. I would kill a hundred men for either of them.

One day, I'm messing with my M9 that my OCS instructor gave me for graduating in the top ten of my class, cleaning it and etching a violet flower into the grip in a similar manner as the one on my Glock. Violet is watching me.

"What's that?"

"A gun."

"What's a gun?"

"A tool that daddy uses to keep you and mommy safe." Lilly is in the kitchen preparing dinner.

"How's it work?"

"I pull this thing right here, called a trigger, and it shoots a bullet out really fast and it stops bad guys."

"What's a bullet?"

"This thing right here, a little metal ball."

"How fast does it go?"

"Faster than you can see."

"Woah."

"Yeah."

"What's a trigger?"

"It's a-" I'm interrupted as Lilly suddenly drops the pan she was rinsing in the sink and collapses to the ground. "Lilly!" I shout, jumping up and rushing over to her.

"Ah, Ah, Ah!" She's grimacing and holding her pelvis.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I… I don't know, my- it hurts, right here." She points to a spot in the upper right portion of her pelvis.

"How bad is it?" I ask.

"Mommy, what's wong?" Violet asks.

"Hang on a second, baby." I tell my daughter.

"It's, pretty bad… I don't know how well I'll be able to stand, it's throbbing." Lilly says.

"You wanna go to the hospital? You probably should."

"Yeah."

"Alright, Violet, let's go with Mommy to the hospital."

"Ok."

I help Violet and Lilly get their stuff on and drive to the hospital.

…

Cancer.

Fucking

Cancer.

It took my grandma, a few aunts and uncles, it almost took my mom when I was younger, now it's gonna take my wife.

Lilly has stage four ovarian cancer in her right side ovaries, and it has spread into her stomach and possibly her uterus. We tried everything. Surgically removing her ovaries and Fallopian tubes, chemo and radiation, medications, everything.

But nothing stopped her condition from worsening. It's been a year since we first found out. Lilly's hair has grown back for the most part. Now I'm laying next to her in bed, holding her hand, holding her body as best I can, Violet's tiny sleeping body between us.

Tonight's the night that Lilly is supposed to die.

She's so frail now, skinny, weak. She's looking at nothing in the way she usually does, a sad smile on her face. "You'll be ok." She whispers, as if merely speaking is too much effort for her.

"I don't want to be ok." I reply.

"Jacob, we've known about this for a while. You don't need to feel bad."

"I will, I'm gonna miss you."

"Don't. I'm always going to be with you."

"I know. It's not the same, though."

"It's alright. Jacob, don't tear yourself down for me, I know it'll be hard. Find someone to love."

"I'll never find someone like you."

"They don't need to be me, they just need to love you too."

"I don't need anyone else. I need you. I don't… I dont want you to go. I love you." I whisper.

"I love you…" Lilly responds.

I feel her breath on my cheek. One final time.

Seven years. Way too little time to know someone you love. Seven of the best years of my life. Lilly gave me a reason to live. She gave me Violet. She gave me unconditional love. I gave her my strength.

I swore an oath to myself that I would be strong for her. I would never cry around her.

I didn't cry when I had horrible days, I had to be strong for her.

I didn't cry when Hisao had another bad heart attack and Hanako thought he might die, I had to be strong for her.

I didn't cry when her father died in a car accident, I had to be strong for her.

I didn't cry when we found out that she most likely wouldn't survive this fight with cancer, I had to be strong for her.

But now…

I don't have to be strong any more.

…

…

…

I'm sitting up in a tree in a park, reading a book on my phone, feeling my new prosthetic eye, glancing up every now and then to keep an eye on Violet, playing on the playground with a few other kids. A couple mothers are sitting on a bench nearby, chatting.

I look up at one point. Only to find that Violet isn't on the playground. I look around for her, panicking. I finally see her, being led away towards a parking lot by some guy, gray hoodie and jeans. She's resisting but I can see that he's pulling her, talking hurriedly, probably pretending that he's a friend of mine and that I'm in some trouble.

I jump out of the tree that I've been in for the last hour, startling the women. I pull out my phone and call the police, following this guy, speed walking. The one time I forget my sidearm. Murphy's Law is a bitch. I tell the police where I'm at and who I'm following, "He's trying to kidnap my daughter. You'd better get an officer here fast before I kill him." I hang up and trot after them. I'm about fifteen feet behind him when he gets to his car, some nondescript Honda Civic.

He opens the rear door and has Violet get in. I get a better look at him, he's a real skinny dude, a fucking loser, a pedophile, a rapist. Everything I hate. He helps violet into the car and starts closing the door, one hand still inside. I run up and kick the door shut, crushing his hand and pinning him against the car. He screams. I grab his shirt and throw him, wrenching and breaking his shoulder in the process. "Stay in the car, baby." I tell Violet.

"O-Ok." She mumbles, terrified. The guy is rolling around on the ground, clutching his shoulder and groaning in pain. I get on top of him, he tries to fight back but I punch him in the face, discombobulating him. I punch him again, and again, and again, and again. I grab his throat and bash his head against the pavement. I keep punching him over and over and over.

Three years ago my wife died, now this guy wanted to take the only good thing left in my life, my daughter, my flesh and blood, away and do God knows what to her. Three years of grief and anger flow through my body and into my fists as I pummel this fuckhead.

This fucker. This fucking piece of dogshit. This motherfucking shitstain cocksucker. These words swirl through my brain as I silently bash this guy's face in, tears falling down my face. "Hey! Stop! What the hell?" I hear people yelling at me to stop. My fists feel hot. I keep punching what's left of this guy's head until cops show up.

I hear sirens. "Sir, step away from him! Sir! If you don't get off him we'll taze you!" The police taze me, pull me off of him and cuff me. I'm taken to jail and held there for a few hours. The police get witness testimonies from my daughter and others nearby, luckily the state I live in has laws defending people who beat the shit out of people who try to hurt their family.

The guy is in ICU for a while but miraculously survives. I get released with only a couple fines that I have to pay off. I have no regrets about what I did. I need to be strong for Violet like I was for Lilly, but she must never see this dark side of me. I'm fucked up. I realized when Lilly died that my life is meant to be painful, so that I can be strong, very strong, a weapon forged in the fires of despair and anguish.

I don't know why, it's not fair at all, but I do know that someday I'm going to need that strength. There's a reason for everything, a reason why I have nightmares every other night, why I met Lilly, then had her taken from me, why I always seem to run into trouble when I'm not looking for it, why I have Violet as a daughter, why I have a knack for making people suffer.

I will discover that reason some day. Until then, I'll just have to continue doing what I can to be a good husband, a good father, and a good man. "_For those I love, I will do great and terrible things."_

As I leave the police station, I get a call from a government phone and answer it. "Hello?"

"Hello Mr. Roberts, my name is Bert Guldir, I'm a representative of the secretary of defense. He would like to speak with you at your earliest convenience."

"SecDef? What does he need to speak to _me _about?"

...


End file.
